The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 

Scenes  and  Sayings  in  the  Life  of  Christ. 

A  Summer  Across  the  Sea. 

The  World  a  Spiritual  System:  An  Outline  of 

Metaphysics. 
The  Basal  Beliefs  of  Christianity. 
The  Psychology  of  Religion. 
Can  We  Believe  in  Immortality? 
The   Coming   of   the   Lord:   Will   It   Be   Pre- 

millennial.'' 
Is  THE  World  Growing  Better? 
A  Wonderful  Night. 
The  Personality  of  God. 
Twelve  Gates:  A  Study  in  Catholicity. 


^^^H  OF  Pm.7: 


JUN 


THE  Truth  ABicm^i^ 
Christian  science 


The  Founder  and  the  Faith 


By  JAMES  H.  SNOWDEN 


PHILADELPHIA 

THE  WESTMINSTER  PRESS 

1920 


Copyright.  1920 
By  F.  M.  BRASELMAN 


PREFACE 

The  author  of  this  book  is  well  aware  that  it  falls 
among  those  "obnoxious  books"  which  the  founder  of 
Christian  Science  forbade  her  followers  to  read  in  her 
endeavor  by  her  censorship  to  protect  them  from  any 
influence  or  light  coming  from  outside  the  closed  circle  of 
her  own  books  and  other  approved  writings.  It  is  not 
therefore  written  primarily  for  Christian  Scientists,  but 
if  any  of  them  should  look  into  it,  it  is  not  thought  they 
will  find  just  ground  of  offense,  however  strong  may  be 
their  dissent.  It  is  difficult  to  be  permanently  offended 
with  facts. 

Every  important  statement  in  this  book  relating  to  the 
founder  and  faith  of  Christian  Science  is  supported  by 
quotations  from  her  writings  or  is  based  upon  trust- 
worthy evidence.  The  most  serious  allegations  per- 
taining to  Mrs.  Eddy  are  sustained  by  her  own  words 
found  in  her  acknowledged  writings,  for  in  such  matters 
she  is  always  the  most  damaging  witness  against  herself. 

The  author  throughout  this  book  has  let  Mrs.  Eddy 
speak  fairly  for  herself.  Her  teaching  is  entitled  to  a 
patient  and  even  sympathetic  hearing  in  its  own  behalf 
before  any  judgment  is  passed  upon  it.  The  author 
really  had  no  particular  prejudice  against  it  when  he 
began  this  investigation,  and  when  asked  by  the  publishers 
to  write  a  book  on  it  was  even  inclined  to  let  Christian 
Science  alone  as  a  rather  harmless  vagary,  and  he  formed 
his  judgments  of  it  as  he  proceeded  with  this  study.     It 


vi  PREFACE 

was  close  acquaintance  with  and  insight  into  its  real 
nature  that  led  him  to  see  that  it  is  a  graver  error  than 
he  had  supposed. 

If  anyone  asks  for  the  justification  for  another  book  on 
this  subject,  the  author  answers  that  he  had  doubts  on 
this  point  himself  until  he  began  to  look  into  its  literature 
and  then  saw  that  there  appears  to  be  no  book  that 
covers  the  whole  ground  of  the  founder  and  the  faith  and 
brings  its  history  up  to  the  present  time.  This  book  not 
only  endeavors  to  do  this,  but  also  as  a  distinctive  feature 
seeks  to  see  the  elements  of  truth  in  Christian  Science 
and  recover  them  to  their  full  use.  It  is  a  story  that  has 
often  been  told,  but  it  will  no  doubt  need  to  be  told  again 
and  again  and  brought  up  to  date  and  subjected  to  the 
criticism  of  new  light. 

J.  H.  S. 

Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  Introduction 1 

1.  Truth  and  Error  in  Religion 

2.  Truth  and  Error  in  Christian  Science 

3.  Literature  of  the  Subject 

II.  The  Subsoil  of  Christian  Science 14 

1.  Philosophical  Idealism 

2.  New  England  Transcendentalism 

3.  Faith  Healing  and  Spiritualism 

III.  Life  of  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy 22 

1.  Early  Years 

2.  Early  Marriages 

3.  Wander  Years 

4.  At  Work  in  Lynn 

5.  Enter:  Asa  Gilbert  Eddy,  Third  Husband 

6.  Lawsuits  at  Lynn 

7.  Malicious  Animal  Magnetism 

8.  Life  in  Boston 

9.  Retirement  and  Closing  Years 

IV.  Where  Did  Mrs.  Eddy  Get  Her  System  of  Healing?     58 

1.  Mrs.  Eddy's  Claims 

2.  Phineas  Parkhurst  Quimby 

3.  Rev.  Warren  F.  Evans,  First  Expositor  of  Quimby 

4.  Mrs.  Eddy's  Relations  with  Dr.  Quimby. 

5.  Mrs.  Eddy's  Denial  of  Dependence  on  Quimby 

V.  "Science  and  Health":  The  Making  of  the  Book.    .     77 

1.  Contents  of  the  Quimby  Manuscript 

2.  Editions  of  "Science  and  Health" 

3.  Who  Wrote  the  Book? 

4.  Enter:  Reverend  James  Henry  Wiggin,  Literary  Reviser 

5.  Mrs.  Eddy's  Claims  to  Divine  Inspiration 

VI.  "Science  and  Health":  The  Contents  of  the  Book  .    102 

1.  Prayer 

2.  Atonement  and  Eucharist 

3.  Marriage 

4.  Christian  Science  Versus  Spiritualism 

5.  Animal  Magnetism  Unmasked 

vii 


viii  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

6.  Science,  Theology,  Medicine 

7.  Physiology 

8.  Footsteps  of  Truth 

9.  Creation 

10.  Science  of  Being 

11.  Some  Objections  Answered 

12.  Christian  Science  Practice 

13.  Teaching  Christian  Science 

14.  Recapitulation 

15.  Genesis 

16.  The  Apocalypse 

17.  Glossary 

18.  Fruitage 

VII.  Christian  Science  Teaching 149 

1.  Its  Fundamental  Denials 

(1)  Matter 

(2)  Sickness 

(3)  Pain  and  Pleasure 

(4)  Sin 

(5)  Death 

(6)  Moral  Tendencies  of  These  Denials 

2.  The  Pantheism  of  Christian  Science 

3.  Christian  Science  and  Marriage 

4.  Christian  Science  and  Christian  Doctrines 

(1)  God 

(2)  Creation 

(3)  Man 

(4)  Christ 

(5)  The  Holy  Spirit 

(6)  Matter,  Sickness,  Suffering,  Sin,  and  Death 

(7)  Prayer 

(8)  Atonement 

(9)  Ordinances 

(10)  Marriage 

(11)  The  Bible 

(12)  Healing 

(13)  Eschatology 

VIII.  The  Christian  Science  Church 174 

1.  The  Founding  of  the  Church  of  Christ  Scientist 

2.  Dissensions  in  the  Christian  Science  Church 

3.  Organization  of  the  Christian  Science  Church 

4.  Christian  Science  Church  Service 

5.  What  Is  the  Membership  of  the  Christian  Science 

Church? 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

IX.  Mind  Healing  and  Christian  Science  Cures   ....   223 

1.  Mind  Healing  in  General 

2.  Have  Miraculous  Cures  Ceased.' 

3.  Christian  Science  Cures 

4.  The  Mercenary  Aspect  of  Christian  Science 

X.  The  Appeal  OF  Christian  Science 259 

1.  The  Appeal  of  Health 

2.  The  Appeal  of  Comfort 

3.  The  Appeal  of  Idealism 

4.  The  Appeal  of  Liberal  Revolt 

5.  The  Appeal  of  Religion 

6.  The  Future  of  Christian  Science 

7.  Some  Recent  Mind  Healing  Movements 

(1)  New  Thought 

(2)  The  Emmanuel  Church  Movement 

XI.  Old  Truths  Newly  Emphasized 287 

1.  The  Supremacy  of  the  Spiritual 

2.  The  Gospel  of  Health 

3.  The  Duty  of  Cheerfulness 

4.  The  Practice  of  the  Presence  of  God. 


WORKS  CONSULTED 

Bates,  J.  H.,  Christian  Science  and  Its  Problems,  1898. 

Benson,  Robert  Hugh,  A  Book  of  Essays,  1916. 

Berkeley,  George,  The  Principles  of  Human  Knowledge,  Krauth's 
Edition. 

BowNE,  Borden  P.,  The  Immanence  of  God,  1905. 

Brown,  William  Leon,  Christian  Science  Falsely  So  Called,  1911. 

Buckley,  James  M.,  Faith  Healing,  Christian  Science  and  Kindred 
Phenomena,  1892, 

Cabot,  Richard  C,  Article  on  "One  Hundred  Christian  Science 
Cures,"  in  McClure's  Magazine,  August,  1908. 

Calkins,  Mary  Whiton,  The  Persistent  Problems  of  Philosophy,  1907. 

Carpenter,  William  B.,  Mental  Physiology,  1874. 

Carroll,  H,  K.,  The  Religious  Forces  of  the  United  States,  1912. 

Carroll,  Robert  S.,  The  Soul  in  Suffering,  1919. 

Clemens,  Samuel  L.  (Mark  Twain),  Christian  Science,  1907. 

Coakeley,  Thomas  J.,  Christian  Science  and  the  Catholic  Church, 
1912. 

Combs,  George  Hamilton,  Some  Latter-Day  Religions,  1899. 

Cooksey,  N.  B.,  Christian  Science  Under  the  Searchlight,  1915. 

Coombs,  J.  V.,  Religious  Delusions,  1904. 

Coppage,  L.  J.,  Christian  Science  in  the  Light  of  Reason,  1914. 

Coriat,  Isador  H.,  Religion  and  Medicine,  1907. 

CuTTEN,  George  Barton,  The  Psychological  Phenomena  of  Chris- 
tianity, 1908. 

Dresser,  Horatio  W.,  Health  andthe  Inner  Life,  1906;  A  Physician 
of  the  Soul,  1908;  The  Philosophy  of  the  Spirit,  1908;  The 
History  of  the  New  Thought  Movement,  1919. 

Dresser,  Julius  A.,  The  True  History  of  Mental  Science,  1887. 

Eddy,  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  G.,  Science  and  Health  with  Key  to  the 
Scriptures,  1916;  Retrospection  and  Introspection,  1891;  Unity 
of  Good  and  Unreality  of  Evil,  1915;  Pulpit  and  Press,  1915; 
Rudimental Divine  Science,  1915;  No  and  Yes,  1915;  Christian 
Healing  and  the  People's  Idea  of  God,  1912;  Christian  Science 
versus  Pantheism,  1912;  Miscellaneous  Writings,  1883-1898; 
The  First  Church  of  Christ  Scientist  and  Miscellany,  1914; 
The  Manual  of  the  Mother  Church,  1919. 

Edwards,  Maurice  D.,  Christian  Science  Reviewed,  1906. 

Farnsworth,  Edward  C,  The  Sophistries  of  Christian  Science,  1909; 
The  Passing  of  Mary  Baker  Eddy,  1911. 

Fiske,  a.  a.,  a  Searchlight  on  Christian  Science,  1913, 


WORKS  CONSULTED  xi 

Flower,  B.  O.,  Christian  Science  as  a  Religious  Belief  and  a  Thera- 
peutic Agent,  1909. 
Frothingham,    Octavious    Brooks,     Transcendentalism    in    New 

England,  1897. 
Gray,  James  M.,  The  Antidote  of  Christian  Science,  1907. 
Greenbaum,  Leon,  Folloto  Christ,  1916. 
Haldeman,  I.  M.,  Christian  Science  in  the  Light  of  Holy  Scripture, 

1909. 
Harris,  Walter  S.,  Christian  Science  and  the  Ordinary  Man,  1917. 
Hegeman,    J.    WiNTHROP,    Must    Protestantism    Adopt    Christian 
Science?  1914. 

Hudson,  Thomas  Jay,  The  Law  of  Mental  Medicine,  1903. 

James,  William  W.,  The  Principles  of  Psychology,  1893. 

Johnson,  Thomas  Gary,  Some  Modern  Isms,  1919. 

Kratzer,  G.  a..  Spiritual  Man,  1914. 

KuHNS,  Oscar,  The  Sense  of  the  Infinite,  1908. 

Ladd,  George  T.,  Outlines  of  Physiological  Psychology,  1893. 

Lambert   L.  A.,  Christian  Science  Before  the  Bar  of  Reason,  1908. 

Larson,  Christian  D.,  The  Good  Side  of  Christian  Science,  1916. 

Lea,  Charles  Herman,  A  Plea  for  the  Thorough  and  Unbiassed  In- 
vestigation of  Christian  Science,  1915. 

McComb,  Samuel,  Religion  and  Medicine,  1907. 

Mackay,  W.  Mackintosh,  The  Disease  and  Remedy  of  Sin,  1919. 

Mars,   Gerhardt,   The  Interpretation  of  Life:   Relation  of  Modern 
Culture  to  Christian  Science,  1908. 

Marshall,  Henry  Rutgers,  Mind  and  Conduct,  1919. 

Marsten,  Francis  Edward,  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science,  1909. 

Milmine,  Georgine,  The  Life  of  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy  and  the  History 
of  Christian  Science,  1909. 

MouLTON   T.  G.,  An  Exposure  of  Christian  Science,  1906. 

Newton,  R.  Heber,  Christian  Science,  1899. 

Paget,  Stephen,  The  Faith  and  Works  of  Christian  Science,  1909. 

Paulsen,  Friedrich,  Introduction  to  Philosophy,  1897. 

Payot,  Jules,  The  Education  of  the  Will,  1909. 

Peabody,  Frederick  W.,  The  Religio- Medical  Masquerade,  1910. 

Pod  more,  Frank,  Mesmerism  and  Christian  Science,  1903. 

Powell,  Lyman  V .,  Christian  Science,theFaith  and  Its  Founder,  1907. 

Purrington,  W.  a..  Christian  Science;  An  Exposition,  1899. 

Riley,  Woodbridgk,  American  Thought  from  Puritanism  to  Prag- 
matism,, 1815. 

Rydberg,  Viktor,  The  Magic  of  the  Middle  Ages,  1879. 

Schofield,  Alfred  T.,  The  Force  of  Mind;  or.  The  Mental  Factor  in 
Medicine,  1907. 

Sears,  Clara  Endicott,  Gleanings  from  Old  Shaker  Journals,  1916. 

Seward,  Theodore  F.,  How  to  Get  Acquainted  with  God,  1902. 

Sheldon,  Henry  C,  Christian  Science  So-Called,  1913. 

Slater,   John   Roth  well,   and   others.  Searchlight    on    Christian 
Science,  1899. 


xii  WORKS  CONSULTED 

Stetson,  Augusta  E.,  Give  God  the  Glory,   1911;   Vital  Issues  in 

Christian  Science,  1914. 
Sturge,  M.  Carta,  The  Truth  and  Error  of  Christian  Science. 
Swain,  Richard  L.,  The  Real  Key  to  Christian  Science,  1917. 
Thompson,  W.  Hanna,  J5rai7i  and  Personality,  1919. 
Trine,  Ralph  Waldo,  In  Tune  with  the  Infinite,  1898;  The  Aline- 

ment  of  Life,  1913. 
Troward,  T.,  The  Edinburgh  Lectures  on  Mental  Science,  1915. 
War  FIELD,  Benjamin  B.,  Counterfeit  Miracles,  1918. 
Weaver,  Edward  E.,   Mind  and    Health  with  an  Examination  of 

Some  Systems  of  Divine  Healing,  1913. 
White,  Andrew  D.,  History  of  the  Warfare  of  Science  with  Theology, 

1897. 
Whitney,  Mrs.  A.  D.  T.,  The  Integrity  of  Christian  Science,  1900. 
Wilbur,  Sibyl,  The  Life  of  Mary  Baker  Eddy,  1907. 
WiLBY,  Thomas  W.,  What  Is  Christian  Science?    1915. 
Woodbury,  Josephine  C,  War  in  Heaven:  Sixteen  Years'  Experi- 
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Word,  1908. 
Arena,  1899. 

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In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth. 

— Genesis  1:1. 

And  Jehovah  God  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  and 
breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life;  and  man  became  a 
living  soul. 

— Genesis  2:7. 

I  have  never  doubted  that  fire  is  hot  and  that  ice  is  cold. 

— Bishop  Berkeley. 

Dark  is  the  world  to  thee:  thyself  art  the  reason  why; 

For  is  He  not  all  but  that  which  has  power  to  feel  "I  am  I." 

— Tennyson. 

A  pseudoscience  does  not  necessarily  consist  wholly  of  lies.  It 
contains  many  truths  and  even  valuable  ones.  The  rottenest  bank 
starts  with  a  little  specie.  It  puts  out  a  thousand  promises  to  pay 
on  the  strength  of  a  single  dollar,  but  the  dollar  is  commonly  a 
good  .one. 

— Oliver  Wendell  Holmes. 

One  of  the  most  important  of  all  changes  had  taken  place  in  the 
world — a  change  in  the  mode  of  thinking.  The  work  of  Descartes, 
Locke,  and  Sir  Isaac  Newton  had  become  a  common  inheritance;  the 
relation  of  physical  effect  with  physical  cause  had  become  established 
even  in  ignorant  and  unthinking  minds. 

— Georgine  Milmine 

One  of  the  most  primitive  and  fundamental  shapes  which  the 
relation  of  cause  and  effect  takes  in  the  savage  mind,  is  the  assumed 
connection  between  disease  or  death  and  some  malevolent  personal 
agency.  .  .  The  minds  of  civilized  people  have  become  familiar 
with  the  conception  of  natural  law,  and  that  conception  has  simply 
stifled  the  old  superstition  as  clover  chokes  out  weeds.  .  ,  .  The 
disposition  to  believe  was  one  of  the  oldest  inheritances  of  the  human 
mind,  while  the  capacity  for  estimating  evidence  in  the  cases  of 
physical  causation  i§  one  of  its  very  latest  and  most  laborious  ac- 
quisitions. 

— John  Fiske. 

Hereby  know  ye  the  spirit  of  God:  every  spirit  that  confesseth 
that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the  flesh  is  of  God:  and  every  spirit 
that  confesseth  not  Jesus  is  not  of  God. 

— /  John  4:2 


THE    TRUTH 
ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

CHAPTER  I 
INTRODUCTION 

It  is  the  purpose  of  the  author  of  this  book  to  ascertain 
and  state,  as  accurately  and  impartially  and  fairly  as  he 
can,  the  facts  as  to  the  founder  and  the  faith  of  Christian 
Science.  While  one  cannot  wholly  escape  from  the  limi- 
tations of  his  personal  point  of  view  and  from  the  sub- 
jective coloring  of  his  established  convictions  and  un- 
conscious preferences,  yet  objective  truth  should  be  his 
ideal,  and  this  is  the  aim  and  effort  of  this  study. 

1.  TRUTH  AND  ERROR  IN  RELIGION 

Religion  is  our  conscious  relation  to  God.  All  human 
beings  sustain  vital  unconscious  relations  to  God,  for  in 
him  we  necessarily  live  and  move  and  have  our  being, 
and  we  could  no  more  escape  from  his  presence  and  power 
than  we  could  slip  out  of  the  grip  of  gravitation.  But 
it  is  only  as  this  relation  emerges  into  the  field  of  conscious 
life  and  becomes  a  matter  of  personal  experience  and 
choice  and  action  that  it  becomes  rehgion.  This  experi- 
ence is  one  of  the  deepest  and  most  universal  and  vital 
facts  in  our  human  world,  as  all  history  witnesses. 

The  truth  in  religion  is  open  to  us  on  the  same  terms  as 

1 


2  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

truth  in  other  fields:  intuition,  perception,  judgment, 
evidence,  reasoning,  and  experience.  God  is  nigh  us,  even 
in  our  heart.  Agnosticism,  that  peremptorily  shuts  its 
gate  against  any  knowledge  of  God,  is  irresistibly  battered 
down  by  the  reasonings  of  our  minds  and  the  urgencies  of 
our  hearts,  and  we  know  God  as  surely  as  the  child  knows 
its  father,  or  as  the  eye  sees  the  sun. 

The  truth  contained  in  religion  is  the  most  vital  in  the 
world,  the  foundation  and  framework  of  all  our  knowledge 
and  life.  "In  the  beginning  God,"  is  the  sublime  opening 
of  the  Bible,  and  it  is  the  beginning  of  all  our  science  and 
philosophy,  religion  and  life.  What  we  think  about  God 
is  the  bottom  principle  of  all  our  thinking  and  shapes 
and  colors  our  thoughts  on  every  subject,  as  the  center 
of  a  circle  determines  every  point  around  its  whole  cir- 
cumference. If  we  believe  in  no  God,  we  have  a  world 
without  a  Cause,  a  universe  without  a  system  and  center, 
a  hopeless  confusion  and  chaos,  if  not  a  wild  dream  of 
insanity  as  well  as  a  colossal  cruelty.  Give  us  God,  and 
the  world  falls  into  order  and  meaning  and  purpose 
around  a  central  throne,  and  all  things  work  together  for 
good. 

But  everything  depends  on  the  kind  of  God  we  believe 
in.  Any  pantheistic  God  or  impersonal  principle  or  blind 
fate  does  not  give  us  any  light  but  only  turns  the  light 
we  have  into  a  greater  darkness.  Our  Christian  faith 
believes  in  God  our  heavenly  Father,  and  this  fact  is  its 
Rock  of  ages  and  its  glory.  We  are  "infants  crying  in 
the  night,*'  and  our  cry  is  answered  by  our  Father  who 
folds  us  in  his  everlasting  arm,  close  to  his  loving  heart. 
When  we  have  faith  in  God  as  our  Father  we  can  calm 
our  perplexed  minds  and  soothe  our  troubled  hearts  and 


INTRODUCTION  3 

be  still  and  know  that  he  is  God.  This  simple  faith 
solves  our  problems,  makes  plain  our  path,  and  gives  us 
strength  and  courage  to  resist  our  temptations  and  bear 
our  burdens  and  win  the  battle  of  life. 

Yet  the  field  of  religion,  which  yields  the  most  blessed 
fruits,  also  abounds  in  the  most  poisonous  weeds.  Its 
very  light  may  turn  to  darkness,  and  then  *'how  great  is 
that  darkness!"  The  best  things  are  always  subject  to 
the  worst  perversion  and  abuse.  The  science  and  art 
that  invent  magic  machines  and  multiply  material  goods 
and  create  all  the  wonders  and  splendors  of  our  civilization, 
also  produce  the  most  diabolical  devices  of  destruction 
and  death  that  blast  the  very  face  of  the  earth  and  destroy 
millions  of  lives.  All  our  education  is  only  a  sharp  and 
cunning  tool  that  bad  men  can  use  as  powerfully  as  good 
men.  The  Devil  can  clothe  himself  in  light  seemingly  as 
pure  and  beautiful  as  the  holiness  of  any  saint  or  the 
white  robes  of  an  angel,  and  often  so  artfully  as  to  deceive 
the  very  elect. 

It  is  not  surprising,  then,  but  inevitable  that  religion 
should  be  productive  of  error  as  well  as  of  truth,  of  evil  as 
well  as  of  good.  And  this  all  history  confirms.  The  records 
of  religion  present  the  aspect  of  a  vast  confusion  and  chaos 
and  noise  of  conflicting  beliefs  and  practices,  "a  dust  of 
systems  and  of  creeds."  Religion  divides  into  innumer- 
able forms  and  sects  that  are  all  more  or  less  at  war  with 
one  another.  Not  only  are  there  many  antagonistic 
general  religions,  but  each  religion  in  itself  splits  into 
sects,  and  historic  Christianity  has  not  escaped  this  fate 
but  has  divided  into  upwards  of  two  hundred  denomi- 
nations, each  one  of  which  has  its  own  internal  divisions. 

In  this  field  are  intermingled  all  forms  and  varieties  of 


4  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

truth  and  error,  wholesome  grain  and  deadly  weeds. 
There  is  no  form  of  belief  so  false  and  fantastic  that  some 
religion  or  religionist  has  not  held  it  as  a  doctrine,  and  no 
religious  rite  so  inhuman  and  cruel  and  wicked  that  it 
has  not  been  advocated  and  practiced  as  a  sacred  duty. 

In  religion. 
What  damned  error  but  some  sober  brow 
Will  bless  it,  and  approve  it  with  a  text. 
Hiding  the  grossness  with  fair  ornament. 

Hatred  and  malice  and  murder  and  every  kind  of  un- 
cleanness  have  been  consecrated  on  the  altar  of  religion 
as  truly  as  purity  and  love  and  service  and  sacrifice.  No 
demon  or  Devil  could  be  more  vile  and  vicious  in  char- 
acter and  conduct  than  have  been  some  gods  that  men 
have  worshipped.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  to  be 
overlooked  that  such  errors  and  misdeeds  are  not  the 
general  fact  and  fruit  but  are  relatively  rare  in  the  history 
of  religion,  and  that  Christianity  has  an  infinitely  larger 
credit  side  to  its  account  and  has  filled  its  pages  with  the 
best  thoughts  and  noblest  deeds  and  the  whitest  and 
most  beautiful  characters  this  world  has  ever  known. 

These  errors  and  evils  in  religion  are  not  all  found  in  the 
past,  but  are  still  in  the  world  and  run  rife  in  Christian 
lands  and  even  disfigure  professedly  Christian  forms  of 
faith  and  worship.  It  is  necessary  to  face  the  diSicult 
task  of  discriminating  the  wheat  from  the  tares,  of  trying 
the  spirits  whether  they  be  of  God,  and  of  proving  all 
things  and  holding  fast  only  that  which  is  good. 

2.  TRUTH  AND  ERROR  IN  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

It  is  certain  that  there  is  truth  in  Christian  Science. 
No  pure  error  could  ever  last  or  even  get  a  start  in  the 


INTRODUCTION  5 

world.  Such  an  error  would  totally  contradict  itself  so 
that  no  sane  mind  could  entertain  it.  Every  error  not 
only  impinges  on  and  interlaces  with  truth  around  its 
whole  boundary,  but  it  also  contains  internal  elements  of 
fact.  It  is  this  truth  in  any  erroneous  system  of  belief 
and  conduct  that  gives  it  some  working  value  and  enables 
it  to  live  and  last  in  the  world.  Tested  by  this  principle, 
Christian  Science  has  proved  that  it  must  contain  large 
elements  of  important  truth,  for  it  has  laid  hold  of  many 
minds  and  spread  rapidly  among  men.  The  adherents  ot 
this  faith  are  generally  people  of  intelligence  and  culture 
and  some  of  them  are  of  marked  ability.  It  has  also 
become  institutionalized  in  a  great  mother  church  with 
thousands  of  members  and  with  many  branches  and  in  a 
complex  and  powerful  organization  with  its  sacred  book, 
its  literature,  magazines,  and  daily  newspaper,  and  with 
an  alert  and  efficient  system  of  propaganda.  It  is  less 
than  fifty  years  old,  and  few  religions  have  more  to  show 
in  so  short  a  time  in  practical  results  than  has  this  modern 
cult. 

Christian  Science  certainly  meets  some  wide  and  deep 
need  in  our  day.  Its  success  indicates  that  it  has  either 
discovered  some  new  truth,  or  else  it  has  emphasized  and 
utilized  some  old  truth  which  other  forms  of  religion  have 
neglected  and  let  fall  into  desuetude.  However  much 
error  it  may  contain  it  has  rendered  a  service  by  calling 
attention  to  this  truth  and  forcing  the  Christian  Church 
to  do  it  justice  in  its  own  teaching  and  practice.  It  is 
the  duty  of  Christians  to  see  and  accept  and  utilize  this 
truth,  and  it  is  the  purpose  of  this  book  to  endeavor  to  do 
this  in  the  study  of  it.  The  spirit  of  truth-seeking  re- 
quires this  and  it  is  hoped  it  may  be  done  in  all  fairness 


6  THIi:  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

and  frankness,  both  out  of  regard  to  justice  to  Christian 
Science  and  of  duty  to  our  Christian  faith. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  reader  will  find  and,  even  at 
the  outset  of  study  and  without  prejudicing  fairness,  can 
aflSrm,  on  the  general  ground  of  well-known  admitted 
facts,  that  there  is  much  error  in  Christian  Science.  The 
most  superficial  acquaintance  with  its  doctrines  and 
practices  proves  this.  A  system  of  belief  that  bodily 
casts  overboard  as  utter  delusions  anatomy,  physiology, 
biology,  geology,  astronomy,  and  all  sciences,  repudiates 
organized  human  knowledge  and  turns  the  whole  natural 
world  into  a  baseless  illusion  of  the  mind,  must  contain  a 
huge  error  that  is  the  mother  of  a  whole  brood  of  errors. 
It  will  be  the  business  of  this  study  to  expose  and  refute 
these  errors  as  it  proceeds. 

Few  subjects  have  been  so  beset  and  beclouded  with 
personal  issues  and  controversial  points  as  Christian 
Science,  and  it  calls  for  a  fair  mind  and  clear  vision  to  dis- 
criminate between  the  truth  and  error  in  this  system;  but 
the  author  will  strive  to  see  the  facts  in  the  light  of 
objective  truth  and  write  in  a  spirit  of  candor  and  charity. 

3.  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SUBJECT 

The  literature  of  Christian  Science  has  become  extensive, 
and  a  number  of  the  more  important  books  on  the  subject 
are  named  in  the  list  of  "Works  Consulted'*  prefixed  to 
this  volume.  It  is  the  purpose  of  this  section  to  name 
and  characterize  a  few  of  the  most  important  ones,  es- 
pecially of  those  on  which  this  study  is  directly  based. 

First  and  foremost  are  the  works  of  Mrs.  Mary  Baker 
Eddy.  She  has  the  right  before  all  others  to  speak  for 
herself  and  should   be  heard   at  every  step  and  point. 


INTRODUCTION  7 

Though  at  first  she  was  a  slow  and  untrained  and  even  un- 
grammatical  writer  and  had  to  learn  after  she  had  passed 
her  fiftieth  year  the  simplest  rudiments  of  literary  art, 
yet  through  patient  and  persistent  practice  she  was  able 
to  turn  out  several  books,  but  with  what  help  will  be  told 
in  later  chapters.  Her  first  and  chief  book  is  the  well- 
known  * 'Science  and  Health  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures," 
which  is  the  bible  of  Christian  Science,  the  book  that  she 
claimed  and  that  her  followers  claim  was  divinely  inspired 
in  the  same  sense  that  the  Bible  was  inspired;  the  book 
that  contains  her  authoritative  official  teaching  and  is 
officially  enjoined  to  be  used  and  is  used  along  with  the 
Bible  in  every  Christian  Science  church  and  service  the 
world  over.  Frequent  reference  to,  and  examination  of, 
this  book  will  be  made  in  the  course  of  this  study.  Of 
course  every  thorough  student  of  this  subject  should 
read  this  book,  and  as  a  guarantee  of  good  faith  the  writer 
declares  that  he  patiently  carried  through  the  task  of 
reading  it  from  beginning  to  end:  a  wearisome  labor  that 
few  people  outside  of  the  inner  circle  of  the  most  devoted 
followers  and  practitioners  of  Christian  Science  have  done 
or  ever  will  do. 

Another  book  by  Mrs.  Eddy  is  * 'Retrospection  and 
Introspection,"  a  brief  and  fragmentary  autobiography 
which  should  be  read  and  carefully  compared  with  other 
sources  of  information  as  to  her  life.  Several  other  books 
are  listed  among  her  writings,  such  as  *'Miscellaneous 
Writings,  1883-1896,"  and  *'The  First  Church  of  Christ 
Scientist  and  Miscellany,"  but  these  are  mostly  composed 
of  selected  articles,  contributed  to  The  Christian  Science 
Journal  and  The  Christian  Science  Sentinel  and  other 
journals,  and  of  messages  to  her  churches.     A  number  of 


8  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

her  sermons  are  also  available,  many  of  these  being  pub- 
lished separately.  All  of  her  books  and  writings  are 
published  by  the  official  Christian  Science  Publishing 
Society  in  Boston,  and  the  edition  of  * 'Science  and  Health," 
used  in  this  study  bears  the  date  of  1916,  except  when 
otherwise  indicated. 

One  of  the  most  important  books  on  this  subject  is 
'The  Life  of  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy  and  the  History  of 
Christian  Science,"  by  Georgine  Milmine.  This  book 
first  appeared  as  a  series  of  illustrated  articles  in  McClure's 
Magazine  in  1906-1907  and  was  then  issued  in  book  form. 
Christian  Scientists  hold  this  to  be  a  prejudiced  and 
hostile  work,  but  in  the  judgment  of  the  author  it  is  a 
thoroughly  scientific  piece  of  historical  investigation  and 
composition.  Miss  Milmine  made  a  comprehensive  and 
searching  inquiry  into  the  facts  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  life  and  into 
the  teaching  and  practice  of  Christian  Science.  She 
visited  the  scenes  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  career,  followed  her  from 
town  to  town  and  through  year  after  year,  examined 
books  and  newspapers  and  court  records,  interviewed 
many  persons  who  knew  and  had  had  personal  relations 
with  her,  obtained  affidavits  on  important  matters,  and 
secured  photographs  of  many  places  and  documents  that 
enter  into  the  story.  Her  book  is  based  on  the  facts  as 
thus  obtained  and  is  not  only  illustrated  with  many 
pictures  from  photographs  of  places  and  persons  but  is 
also  fortified  with  facsimiles  of  some  important  documents. 
The  book  is  written  with  an  evident  desire  and  effort  to 
find  and  tell  the  truth,  and  it  will  ever  stand  as  an  authori- 
tative history  based  on  original  investigation  and  backed 
up  with  names,  dates,  documents,  and  affidavits.  The 
writer  has  made  frequent  use  of  and  generous  quotations 


INTRODUCTION  9 

from  this  book,  of  which  due  acknowledgments  have  been 
given. 

Another  book  next  in  importance  to  Miss  Milmine's 
is  * 'Christian  Science,  the  Faith  and  Its  Founder,"  by 
Lyman  P.  Powell,  Rector  of  St.  John's  Church,  North- 
ampton, Mass.,  and  now  president  of  Hobart  College, 
Geneva,  N.  Y.  Dr.  Powell  says  in  his  preface  that  he 
has  made  free  use  of  Miss  Milmine's  articles  and  adds: 
**I  have  taken  the  pains,  however,  in  each  instance  to 
verify  her  statements  by  correspondence  or  by  interviews 
with  those  concerned.  For  this  purpose  alone  I  have 
traveled  more  than  twenty-five  hundred  miles  and  am 
glad  to  be  able  to  testify  to  the  singular  accuracy  of  the 
articles  and  the  thoroughness  with  which  they  have  been 
prepared."  This  is  a  remarkable  confirmation  of  the 
trustworthiness  of  Miss  Milmine's  book.  Dr.  Powell 
also  contributes  additional  light  of  value  on  Christian 
Science  as  the  result  of  his  own  investigations.  The 
day  for  obtaining  personal  evidence  from  those  that 
knew  and  had  relations  with  Mrs.  Eddy  is  about  gone, 
and  later  writers  will  necessarily  largely  depend  on  these 
first-hand  students  and  witnesses  for  the  facts  in  the  case. 

Miss  Milmine's  articles  in  McClure's  called  forth  an 
answer  in  the  form  of  a  series  of  articles  that  appeared  in 
the  journal,  Human  Life,  and  were  then  issued  in  a  volume 
entitled  "The  Life  of  Mary  Baker  Eddy,"  (1907),  by 
Sibyl  Wilbur  O'Brien,  now  Sibyl  Wilbur.  This  book  is 
published  by  The  Christian  Science  Publishing  Society, 
Boston,  and  is  thus  officially  authorized.  Mrs.  Eddy 
herself  published  in  the  Christian  Science  Sentinel  of 
March  12,  1910,  the  following  authorization  of  the  book, 
which  is  now  printed  in  the  book  itself: 


10  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

I  have  not  had  sufficient  interest  in  the  matter  to  read  or  to  note 
from  others'  reading  what  the  enemies  of  Christian  Science  are 
said  to  be  circulating  regarding  my  history,  but  my  friends  have 
read  Sibyl  Wilbur's  book,  "Life  of  Mary  Baker  Eddy,"  and  request 
the  privilege  of  buying,  circulating,  and  recommending  it  to  the 
public.  I  briefly  declare  that  nothing  has  occurred  in  my  life's 
experience  which,  if  correctly  narrated  and  understood,  could  injure 
me;  and  not  a  little  is  already  reported  of  the  good  accomplished 
therein,  the  self-sacrifice,  etc.,  that  has  distinguished  all  my  working 
years.  I  thank  Miss  Wilbur  and  the  Concord  Publishing  Company 
for  their  unselfish  labors  in  placing  this  book  before  the  public, 
and  hereby  say  that  they  have  my  permission  to  publish  and  circu- 
late this  work.  Mary  Baker  Eddy. 


It  will  be  noted  that  Mrs.  Eddy  takes  advantage  of  the 
occasion  to  write  a  recommendation  of  herself  as  well  as 
of  the  book. 

As  to  Miss  Wilbur's  book,  it  bears  all  the  marks  of  an 
interested  advocate's  statement  of  facts  in  dispute  and 
defense  of  a  character  under  attack.  It  is  partisan  in  the 
extreme,  and  everything  is  turned  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  glory. 
The  many  facts  in  her  life  that  appeai  in  an  unfortunate 
and  often  painful  light  in  Miss  Milmine's  book  are  by 
Miss  Wilbur  toned  down  and  glossed  over  and  clothed 
in  a  different  aspect.  Even  the  most  desperate  cases  are 
made  the  best  of,  though  the  ugly  truth  cannot  always  be 
denied  or  explained  away.  The  personal  adulation  of 
Mrs.  Eddy,  approaching  divine  worship,  is  nauseating. 
Even  such  a  simple-minded  soul  and  colorless  limp 
personality  as  Asa  Gilbert  Eddy,  Mrs.  Eddy's  third 
husband,  at  whose  *'calm,  sweet  eyes"  the  presiding  judge 
in  a  celebrated  trial  *'must  have  wondered,"  is  ridiculously 
adulated.  In  contrast  with  Miss  Milmine's  book,  which 
is  abundantly  supplied  with  quotations  from  and  references 
to  authorities  and  documents,  Miss  Wilbur's  book  is 
almost  bare  of  such  quotations  and  references.     It  ob- 


INTRODUCTION  11 

viously  lacks  objective  authority  and  gives  the  impression 
that  it  is  largely  a  subjective  production.  It  is  based 
in  no  small  measure  on  conversations  with  and  explana- 
tions and  private  disclosures  which  must  have  come  from 
Mrs.  Eddy  herself.  Such  statements  occur  as  *'Mrs. 
Eddy  has  told  the  author,"  and  *'Mrs.  Eddy  has  recently 
pointed  out  to  the  author."  There  are  many  of  these 
confidential  revelations,  so  that  one  is  led  to  believe  that 
the  book  is  largely  the  result  of  the  intimate  communings 
of  the  author  with  Mrs.  Eddy  and  that  it  is  little  more 
than  what  Mrs.  Eddy  wants  the  world  to  believe  about 
herself.  The  book,  however,  is  a  valuable  document  in 
the  case  and  confirms  more  than  it  explains  away. 

Having  in  hand  the  books  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  Miss  Milmine, 
Dr.  Powell,  and  Miss  Wilbur  the  student  can  get  at  the 
essential  facts  as  to  the  founder  and  the  faith  of  this  cult. 

Many  other  books  throw  important  corroborative  light 
and  critical  illumination  on  it,  among  which  may  be 
named  the  following:  *'The  Interpretation  of  Life,"  New 
York,  (1908),  by  Gerhardt  C.  Mars,  a  New  York  "lec- 
turer," purports  to  show  *'the  relation  of  Modern  Culture 
to  Christian  Science."  It  displays  considerable  learning 
and  acumen  and  strongly  supports  Mrs.  Eddy's  claims, 
granting  her  "preternatural  insight,"  but  distinguishing 
"two  phases  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  life — as  indeed  in  all  our 
lives — which  are  to  be  borne  in  mind,  viz.:  her  human 
personality,  with  its  mortal  limitations,  and  her  spiritual 
individuality  which  is  ever  seeking  to  express  itself  through 
the  human  form,"  a  distinction  apparently  after  the 
manner  of  the  infalHbility  of  the  pope,  who  is  infallible 
only  when  speaking  in  his  ofiicial  and  not  in  his  private 
capacity. 


12  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

A  dispassionate  exposition  of  the  system  is  found  in 
Thomas  W.  Wilby's  *'What  Is  Christian  Science?"  On 
the  other  hand,  *'A  Plea  for  the  Thorough  and  Unbiassed 
Investigation  of  Christian  Science,"  by  Charles  Herman 
Lea,  an  English  writer,  is  anything  but  "unbiassed"  in 
its  intensely  dogmatic  and  heated  defense  of  this  faith. 
If  italics  and  black  letter  type  were  logic,  Mr.  Lea  would 
be  very  convincing. 

*'TheReligio-Medical  Masquerade,  a  Complete  Exposure 
of  Christian  Science,"  (1910),  is  by  Frederick  W.  Peabody, 
a  Boston  lawyer  who  was  comisel  in  several  cases  brought 
against  Mrs.  Eddy  and  has  had  intimate  relations  with 
many  of  the  people  involved  in  this  story.  He  tells  us 
in  the  introduction  to  his  book  that  *'the  facts  herein  set 
forth  are,  almost  without  exception,  based,  either  upon 
Mrs.  Eddy's  own  published  utterances,  her  private  cor- 
respondence, the  sworn  testimony  of  witnesses,  or  the 
admissions  under  oath  of  her  most  influential  friends  and 
followers."  Mr.  Peabody's  book,  written  in  a  trenchant 
style,  reveals  much  inside  information  and  is  a  damaging 
document  in  the  case  he  presents  against  Christian 
Science. 

*'The  Faith  and  Works  of  Christian  Science,"  (1909), 
is  an  examination  of  the  system,  especially  in  it  claims 
of  healing,  by  Stephen  Paget,  M.  D.,  an  eminent  London 
medical  authority.  Mark  Twain's  ^'Christian  Science," 
(1907),  is  the  humorist's  terribly  sarcastic  but  really 
serious  exposure  of  the  cult,  illuminating  and  sharp  as 
a  flash  of  lightning.  It  by  no  means  lacks  logic,  for  so 
keen  a  logician  as  Dr.  Francis  L.  Patton,  of  Princeton, 
when  he  was  asked  what  book  he  read  in  refutation  of 
Christian  Science,  answered  with  a  characteristic  snap  of 


INTRODUCTION  13 

his  mouth,  "Mark  Twain!"  "Mesmerism  and  Christian 
Science,"  (1909),  by  Frank  Podmore,  an  EngUsh  psy- 
chologist and  member  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Re- 
search, is  written  with  a  psychologist's  insight  and  in  a 
judicial  spirit.  A  small  but  important  book  is  "The 
True  History  of  Mental  Science,"  by  Julius  A.  Dresser, 
(1887),  who  was  a  patient  of  Dr.  Quimby  and  then  a 
teacher  of  his  system  and  had  inside  and  intimate  knowl- 
edge of  the  facts  that  lie  at  the  very  origin  and  root  of 
Christian  Science. 

The  title  of  this  book  occurred  to  and  was  adopted  by 
the  writer  in  May,  1919,  and  he  had  almost  completed  the 
manuscript  when  he  discovered  that  a  book  with  the 
same  title  (except  the  subtitle)  had  appeared  in  1916, 
the  author  being  George  M.  Searle,  of  the  Paulist  Fathers 
and  formerly  Professor  of  Mathematics  in  the  Catholic 
University,  Washington,  D.  C.  Father  Searle's  book  is 
confined  to  a  critical  examination  of  "Science  and  Health," 
and  is  a  keen  piece  of  work. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  SUBSOIL  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Every  system  of  thought  and  movement  in  society  has 
deep  roots  and  distant  connections,  and  we  must  under- 
stand these  in  order  to  comprehend  it.  Christian  Science 
has  such  roots. 

1.  PHILOSOPHICAL  IDEALISM 

Philosophical  idealism  is  as  old  as  Plato  and  has  come 
down  into  our  day  in  a  deepening  gulf  stream  of 
thought.  It  found  classical  expression  in  Berkeley's 
* 'Principles  of  Human  Knowledge,"  a  book  of  singular 
lucidity  which  readers  untrained  in  philosophy  can  under- 
stand. Briefly,  this  system  holds  that  mind  or  spirit  is 
the  ultimate  and  sole  reality  and  that  matter  is  a  mode  of 
its  activity.  The  doctrine  usually  maintains  that  God 
is  the  infinite  and  eternal  Spirit,  who  has  posited  or 
created  finite  spirits,  and  that  the  material  world  is  a 
mode  of  the  divine  will  and  life.  As  finite  spirits  we  are 
environed  in  God,  in  whom  "we  live  and  move  and  have 
our  being,'*  and  our  experience  of  the  world  is  caused  by 
the  activity  of  God  which  we  in  some  degree  share  with 
him.  Idealism,  then,  does  not  at  all  deny  the  reality  of 
matter  or  resolve  it  into  a  subjective  illusion  or  delusion, 
but  only  discovers  and  demonstrates,  as  it  believes,  the 
true  nature  of  matter  as  a  mode  of  the  divine  life. 

14 


THE  SUBSOIL  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  15 

Dr.  Powell  says  of  P.  P.  Quimby,  the  mind  healer 
of  Portland,  Me.,  from  whom  Mrs.  Eddy,  as  we  shall  see, 
derived  her  ideas:  "He  read  much.  The  Bible  was  ever 
in  his  hand,  and  sometimes  Berkeley."  Quimby  taught 
that  "error  is  matter."  The  uneducated  Portland  clock 
maker  thus  had  obtained  a  perverted  notion  of  Berkeley's 
idealism,  and  this  trickled  down  into  Mrs.  Eddy's  mind. 
She  mentions  Berkeley  but  only  to  disown  him  and  it  is 
not  likely  that  she  ever  read  him,  but  in  some  way  she 
got  an  inkling  of  this  philosopher's  theory  in  the  form 
that  matter,  instead  of  being  a  phenomenal  experience  of 
objective  spiritual  reality,  is  a  pure  subjective  delusion  to 
be  "denied"  and  cast  out  of  the  mind;  and  this  initial 
mistake  lies  at  the  root  of  her  system  and  is  the  beginning 
of  all  her  trouble.  The  basis  of  Christian  Science  is  a 
misunderstood  and  spurious  form  of  idealism.  Philo- 
sophical idealism  in  all  its  forms  repudiates  Christian 
Science  as  an  illegitimate  and  deformed  child  and  will 
acknowledge  no  responsibility  for  it. 


2.  NEW  ENGLAND  TRANSCENDENTALISM 

Mrs.  Eddy  grew  up  in  New  England  at  a  time  when  a 
peculiar  type  of  transcendentalism  was  running  its  course 
and  blighting  the  roots  of  historic  Christian  faith.  Re- 
action against  the  extreme  Calvinism  of  Jonathan  Edwards 
and  his  successors  had  swung  to  Unitarianism  and  then 
had  escaped  from  the  gravitation  of  Christianity  into 
free  thought.  Channing  and  Parker,  Frothingham  and 
Freeman  Clarke  were  leaders  in  the  movement  that  gave 
the  world  "the  pale  negations  of  Boston  Unitarianism." 
Emerson   went   beyond   them   and   became   lost   in   the 


16  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

pantheistic  Oversoul.  He  was  a  seer  of  wonderful  insight 
and  taught  truth  of  imperishable  value,  yet  he  emitted 
a  cold,  white  light  that  corruscated  brilliantly  in  the  brain 
but  gave  no  warmth  to  the  heart  and  little  religious 
satisfaction  to  the  soul.  The  literary  genius  of  Long- 
fellow and  Lowell  and  Holmes  produced  some  high-grade 
poetry,  but  yielded  very  thin  religion.  Transcendentalism 
reached  its  limit  in  A.  Bronson  Alcott  whose  "orphic 
sayings"  and  subjective  exhalations  were  bits  of  pale 
clouds  that  have  long  since  evaporated  into  nothingness. 

New  England  transcendentalism  thus  did  some  notable 
literary  work  and  emitted  some  splendid  fireworks,  but 
it  burned  New  England  over  with  a  kind  of  slow-consuming 
fire  of  religious  indifference  and  skepticism  that  left  the 
ground  ready  for  a  new  crop  of  reactionary  movements. 
Such  a  crop  is  sure  to  spring  up.  Deprive  people  of  relig- 
ious bread  and  they  will  take  to  stones  rather  than  do 
without  any  spiritual  food.  When  the  human  soul  is 
swept  and  left  empty,  it  is  in  a  dangerous  condition,  and 
if  nothing  else  comes  in,  devils  will.  As  faith  in  the  myth- 
ological gods  died  out  in  the  ancient  Greek  and  Roman 
world,  it  swarmed  with  all  manner  of  wild,  fantastic  cults. 
Dead  orthodoxy  becomes  the  rank  hothouse  and  seedbed 
of  heresy.  As  rational  faith  wither^,  fads  flourish.  The 
human  heart  is  ^'incurably  religious"  and  will  have  its 
god  and  its  cult,  and  if  robbed  of  one  thing  it  will  take  to 
another,  though  it  be  a  god  as  false  and  foolish  as  a  hideous 
idol  of  wood  or  stone. 

New  England  in  the  middle  decades  of  the  last  century 
was  just  the  soil  in  which  Christian  Science  could  strike 
root  and  flourish,  and  it  took  advantage  of  its  opportunity. 


THE  SUBSOIL  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  17 

3.  FAITH  HEALING  AND  SPIRITUALISM 

New  England  was  prolific  in  these  strange  cults.  At 
East  Canterbury,  New  Hampshire,  within  five  miles  of 
Tilton,  Mary  Baker's  childhood  home,  was  the  main 
community  of  the  Shakers,  a  sect  that  had  been  founded 
by  Ann  Lee.  Their  peculiar  doctrines  and  still  more 
peculiar  practices  were  the  cause  of  much  popular  ex- 
citement and  of  considerable  indignation  in  the  region 
round  about,  and  the  impressionable  young  girl  who  after- 
wards became  Mrs.  Eddy  must  have  heard  and  seen  much 
of  these  strange  doings.  While  Shakerism  and  Christian 
Science  are  not  closely  connected,  yet  they  have  many 
points  of  affinity  and  contact.  The  Shakers  always 
prayed  to  *'Our  Father  and  Mother  which  art  in  heaven,'* 
while  Mrs.  Eddy's  *'spiritually  interpreted"  version  of 
The  Lord's  Prayer  begins,  *'Our  Father-Mother  God." 
The  Shakers  proclaimed  Ann  Lee  to  be  the  woman  of 
the  Apocalypse,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  made  the  same  suggestion 
with  reference  to  herself.  The  Shakers  called  Ann  Lee 
"Mother,"  and  Mrs.  Eddy  arrogated  this  name  to  her- 
self and  forbade  her  followers  to  bestow  it  upon  others, 
although  afterwards  she  withdrew  the  privilege  of  apply- 
ing it  to  herself  and  denied  that  she  had  ever  authorized 
such  use.  The  Shakers  claimed  that  Ann  Lee  was  in- 
spired, and  Mrs.  Eddy  made  the  same  claim.  Ann  Lee 
declared  that  she  had  the  gift  of  healing,  and  this  was 
Mrs.  Eddy's  chief  stock  in  trade.  The  Shakers  called 
their  organization  "The  Church  of  Christ,"  and  Mrs. 
Eddy  adopted  this  name  with  the  addition  of  "Scientist." 
The  Shakers  forbade  audible  prayer,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  dis- 
approved of  it  and  has  none  of  it,  except  The  Lord's 
Prayer  with  her  "interpretation"  of  it,  in  her  services. 


18  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Ann  Lee  enjoined  celibacy,  and  Mrs.  Eddy,  though 
practicing  marriage  Hberally  herself,  discouraged  it  in 
others.  1 

Andrew  Jackson  Davis,  born  in  Orange  County,  N.  Y., 
in  1826,  was  a  clairvoyant  and  magnetic  healer  and  later 
a  spiritualist,  who  attained  notoriety  as  a  traveling 
lecturer,  and  published  several  volumes  setting  forth  his 
doctrines  and  methods  of  healing.  He  used  in  a  peculiar 
sense  such  terms  as  "truth,'*  "error,"  and  especially 
"principle,"  in  very  much  the  same  way  as  they  were 
adopted  as  characteristic  terms  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  teaching. 
"Truth,"  he  says,  "is  positive  principle;  error  is  a  negative 
principle."  "Power,  wisdom,  goodness,  justice,  mercy, 
truth,  are  the  gradual  developments  of  an  eternal  and 
internal  principle,  constituting  the  divine,  original  es- 
sence." He  taught  that  Christ  employed  animal  mag- 
netism in  making  cures,  and  that  to  dispel  disease  the 
divine  principle  has  provided  certain  remedial  agents.  ^ 
Dr.  Warren  F.  Evans,  in  a  work  entitled  "Mental  Medi- 
cine" and  published  three  years  before  the  first  edition 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  book  "Christian  Science,"  said:  "Disease 
being  in  its  root  a  wrong  belief,  change  that  belief  and  we 
cure  the  disease.  By  faith  we  are  thus  made  whole. "^ 
He  will  appear  later  in  this  study. 

Another  remarkable  man  was  Thomas  Lake  Harris, 
born  in  1823,  who  established  a  community  at  Brocton, 
N.  Y.,  fell  into  trances,  and  spoke  rhapsodically  by  in- 
spiration, discouraged  marriage  as  a  "terrible"  thing, 
and  had  strange  hypnotic  power  over  his  followers,  even 

1  See  Clara  Endicott  Sears,  Gleanings  frovi  Old  Quaker  Journals, 
and  Milmine,  History,  pp.  494,  495. 

2  Milmine  History,  pp.  489,  493. 

3  Ibid,  p.  483. 


THE  SUBSOIL  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  19 

captivating  and  enslaving  Lady  Oliphant  and  her  well- 
known  son  Laurence  Oliphant.  ^ 

Joseph  Smith,  born  in  1805  at  Sharon,  Vt.,  of  il- 
literate and  neuropathic  parents,  and  who  became  dis- 
satisfied with  the  clash  of  creeds  at  Palmyra,  N.  Y., 
whither  his  parents  had  removed  in  1815,  began  to  have 
"visions'*  and  the  "Book  of  Mormon"  was  produced 
which  was  the  start  of  Mormonism,  another  religious 
vagary  with  roots  running  back  into  New  England. 
Mormonism  and  Christian  Science  have  many  points  of 
affinity.  Both  sprang  from  the  same  region  at  about  the 
same  time  out  of  the  same  social  and  religious  conditions; 
both  had  founders  of  neurotic,  physical  constitution  and 
hysterical  temperament,  who  had  very  meager  education 
and  claimed  to  receive  divine  revelations;  both  have  an 
alleged  inspired  book  or  bible,  and  both  of  these  books, 
it  is  charged,  were  plagiarized  by  their  authors  from  other 
writings;  both  claim  to  be  a  later  revelation  and  higher 
form  of  Christianity;  both  hold  peculiar  views  on  the 
marriage  relation;  and  both  in  their  practices  have  come 
into  conflict  with  the  civil  law. 

In  the  meanwhile  mesmerism  was  spreading  like  wild- 
fire over  New  England.  Charles  Poyen,  a  French  disciple 
of  Mesmer,  traveled  through  the  region  lecturing  and 
performing  feats  of  mesmeric  influence  in  the  same  towns 
in  which  Mary  Baker  then  lived.  In  1837  he  published 
"Animal  Magnetism,'*  in  which  he  called  his  system 
"Truth,"  "the  Power  of  Mind  over  Matter,"  a  "demon- 
stration," a  "discovery  given  of  God"  and  a  "science. "2 

^  Podmore,  Mesmerism  and  Christian  Science.     Ch.  XIII. 
2  Milmine,  History,  p.  23. 


20  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

The  teaching  and  work  of  P.  P.  Quimby,  the  faith  healer 
of  Portland,  Me.,  will  be  considered  later. 

The  excitement  over  the  alleged  spirit  rappings  of  the 
Fox  sisters  at  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  broke  out  in  1853  and 
spread  through  New  York  and  New  England.  Alleged 
^'mediums"  multiplied  and  *'communications"  from  de- 
parted spirits  became  a  common  belief  and  practice. 
Judge  Edmonds,  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York, 
and  Dr.  Dexter,  an  eminent  physician  of  New  York  City, 
investigated  the  subject  and  published  a  work  that 
became  an  authority  and  gave  wide  currency  and  respect- 
ability to  belief  in  the  system. 

*'Thus  in  the  '30's,"  to  quote  Miss  Milmine,  *'the  first 
wave  of  mental  science,  animal  magnetism,  and  clair- 
voyance swept  over  New  England.  The  atmosphere  was 
charged  with  the  occult,  the  movement  ranging  all  the 
way  from  phrenology  and  mind-reading  to  German 
transcendentalism.  Quimby*s  interest  was  directly  stim- 
ulated by  the  visit  of  Charles  Poyen,  the  well-known 
French  mesmerist,  who  came  to  lecture  in  Belfast  (Me.). 
The  inquiring  clock  maker  became  absorbed  in  Poyen's 
theories,  formed  his  acquaintance,  and  followed  him  from 
town  to  town.  .  .  Then,  as  now,  the  public  mind  as- 
sociated occult  sciences  with  the  cure  of  physical  disease. 
Clairvoyants,  magnetisers,  and  mind  readers  treated  all 
imaginable  ills.  .  .  Hundreds  of  men,  women,  and 
children,  Vhose  cases  the  doctors  had  given  up  as  hope- 
less,' fervently  testified  to  their  power.  Consumptives, 
according  to  popular  report,  began  to  get  well,  the  blind 
saw,  and  the  halt  walked. "l 

This  state  of  things  in  New  England  was  the  soil  out  of 

1  History,  pp.  45,  46. 


THE  SUBSOIL  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  21 

which  Christian  Science  grew,  the  environment  in  which 
Mary  Baker  was  reared,  the  atmosphere  she  breathed, 
the  mental  and  rehgious  influences  that  unconsciously 
molded  and  colored  her  highly  nervous,  neurotic,  im- 
pressionable nature.  Christian  Science  had  its  roots 
in  this  soil;  both  the  founder  and  the  faith  are  the  proper 
fruits  of  such  seeds. 


CHAPTER  III 
LIFE  OF  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY 

The  following  is  a  rapid  outline  of  the  life  of  the  remark- 
able woman  who  was  the  founder  of  Christian  Science 
and  the  veritable  incarnation  of  the  whole  system.  It 
takes  a  large  volume  to  trace  all  the  windings  and  dis- 
entangle all  the  knots  in  her  strangely  checkered  career, 
and  only  the  more  important  points  can  be  touched  on 
here. 

1.  EARLY  YEARS 

Mary  A.  Morse  Baker,  the  youngest  of  the  six  children 
of  Mark  and  Abigail  Ambrose  Baker,  was  born  July 
16, 1821,  in  Bow  township,  near  Concord,  New  Hampshire. 
The  parents  were  members  of  the  Congregational  Church, 
and  the  father  was  a  man  of  narrow  mind  and  dogmatic 
temper  who  pushed  his  opinions  on  other  people  and  had 
a  conscience  that  gave  great  trouble  to  his  neighbors. 
The  mother  was  of  a  quiet  disposition  and  faithfully 
attended  to  her  home  cares  and  church  duties.  The 
family  were  in  meager  circumstances,  and  hard  work  on 
a  lonely  farm  in  the  days  when  there  were  no  railroads 
and  few  newspapers  was  the  daily  routine  of  their  life. 

Mary  early  attracted  attention  as  a  beautiful  and  bright 
child,  but  even  in  infancy  she  was  subject  to  attacks  of 
a  hysterical  nature.  The  irascibility  of  her  father  came 
out  in  her  in  intensified  temper  and  weakened  self-control. 
The  family  soon  learned  that  they  must  yield  to  her  whims, 
and  all  rules  were  in  abeyance  when  she  had  one  of  her 

22 


LIFE  OF  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  23 

"fits."  The  Sabbath  was  an  especially  dangerous  day 
with  her,  and  even  her  domineering  father  had  then  to 
relax  some  of  his  rules,  *'for  she  invariably  had  one  of  her 
bad  attacks,  and  the  day  ended  in  excitement  and  anxiety." 
*'Mrs.  Baker,  the  mother,  often  told  her  friends  that 
Mary,  of  all  her  children,  was  the  most  difficult  to  care 
for,  and  they  were  all  at  their  wits*  end  to  keep  her  quiet 
and  amuse  her."i  gj^g  attended  the  district  school  for 
a  short  time,  but  on  account  of  her  peculiar  disposition 
she  was  allowed  to  stop  and  went  no  more  until  she  had 
reached  her  fifteenth  year. 

In  her  autobiography,  * 'Retrospection  and  Introspec- 
tion," Mrs.  Eddy  relates,  as  her  chief  remembrance  of 
the  Bow  farm  days,  the  following  incident: 

For  some  twelve  months,  when  I  was  about  eight  years  old,  I 
repeatedly  heard  a  voice,  calling  me  distinctly  by  name,  three  times, 
in  an  ascending  scale.  I  thought  this  was  my  mother's  voice,  and 
sometimes  went  to  her,  beseeching  her  to  tell  me  what  she  wanted. 
Her  answer  was  always:  ''Nothing,  child!  What  do  you  mean?" 
Then  I  would  say:  "Mother,  who  did  call  me?  I  heard  somebody 
call  'Mary'  three  times!"  This  continued  until  I  grew  discouraged, 
and  my  mother  was  perplexed  and  anxious. 

The  similarity  to  the  call  of  the  child  Samuel,  I  Sam., 
ch.  3,  is  obvious,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  completes  the  parallel 
as  follows: 

My  mother  read  to  me  the  Scriptural  narrative  of  little  Samuel, 
and  bade  me,  when  the  voice  called  again,  to  reply  as  he  did,  "Speak, 
Lord;  for  thy  servant  heareth."  The  voice  came;  but  I  did  not 
answer.  Afterward  I  wept,  and  prayed  that  God  would  forgive  me, 
resolving  to  do,  next  time,  as  my  mother  had  bidden  me.  When 
the  call  came  again  I  did  answer,  in  the  words  of  Samuel,  but  never 
again  to  the  material  senses  was  that  mysterious  call  repeated. 2 

1  These  and  other  quotations  without  references  are  from  Miss 

Milmine's  History. 

2  Retrospection  and  Introspection,  pp.  8,  9. 


24         THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Mark  Baker  lived  on  the  Bow  farm  from  1785  to  1836) 
and  then  removed  to  Tilton  (then  Sanborton  Bridge) 
eighteen  miles  north  of  Concord,  where  he  lived  until  his 
death  in  1865.  Here  Mary  again  went  to  the  district 
school,  and  as  she  was  backward  in  her  studies  she  was 
placed  in  a  class  with  younger  children.  Miss  Milmine 
interviewed  a  number  of  her  classmates  and  quotes  one 
of  them  as  follows:  *'I  remember  Mary  Baker  very  well," 
said  one  of  her  classmates  living  (1907)  in  Tilton. 
"She  began  to  come  to  district  school  in  the  early  summer 
of  1836.  I  recollect  her  very  distinctly  because  she  sat 
just  in  front  of  me,  and  because  she  was  such  a  big  girl 
to  be  in  our  class.  I  was  only  nine,  but  I  helped  her 
with  her  arithmetic  when  she  needed  help.  We  studied 
Smith's  Grammar  and  ciphered  by  ourselves  in  Adam's 
New  Arithmetic,  and  when  she  left  school  in  three  or 
four  weeks  we  had  both  reached  long  division.  She  left 
on  account  of  sickness." 

Turning  to  * 'Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  we 
read  Mrs.  Eddy's  own  account  of  these  days.  She  says 
that  she  was  kept  out  of  school  because  her  father  was 
taught  to  believe  that  her  brain  was  too  large  for  her 
body;  that  her  brother  Albert,  then  a  student  in  college, 
taught  her  Greek,  Latin,  and  Hebrew;  that  her  favorite 
childhood  studies  were  natural  philosophy,  logic,  and 
moral  science;  that  at  ten  years  of  age  she  was  as  familiar 
with  Lindley  Murray's  Grammar  as  with  the  Westminster 
Catechism;  and  that  she  graduated  from  Dyer  H.  San- 
born's Academy  at  Tilton.  Her  schoolmates  when  inter- 
viewed by  Miss  Milmine  could  not  reconcile  these  state- 
ments with  their  own  knowledge.  They  do  not  believe 
her  brother  taught  her  Greek,  Latin,  and  Hebrew,  for 


LIFE  OF  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  25 

he  entered  college  when  Mary  was  nine  and  left  home 
when  she  was  thirteen  years  old.  Dyer  H.  Sanborn 
did  not  conduct  an  ^'academy"  and  there  were  no  "grad- 
uations'* from  it;  and  they  insist  that  Mary  left  school 
when  she  had  only  reached  long  division.  Mrs.  Eddy 
further  says  in  her  autobiography,  * 'After  my  discovery 
of  Christian  Science,  most  of  the  knowledge  I  had  gleaned 
from  schoolbooks  vanished  like  a  dream"!  As  she  never 
gave  any  indication  of  ever  having  possessed  any  knowl- 
edge of  "Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin,"  "natural  philosophy, 
logic,  and  moral  science,"  it  is  evident  that  her  belief 
or  claim  that  she  once  had  such  learning  was  a  dream 
also.  "Learning  was  so  illumined,"  she  continues,  "that 
grammar  was  eclipsed."  There  is  plenty  of  evidence  of 
this  in  her  own  unassisted  writings.  "Etymology  was 
divine  history,  voicing  the  idea  of  God  in  man's  origin 
and  signification."  Her  "spiritual  sense,  which  is  also 
their  original  meaning"  of  words  as  given  in  her  "Glossary" 
in  "Science  and  Health,"  is  always  purely  fanciful  and 
often  screamingly  ridiculous.  "Syntax  was  spiritual  order 
and  unity."  Her  syntax  may  have  been  "spiritual," 
but  it  certainly  was  not  grammatical.  "Prosody,  the 
song  of  angels,  and  no  earthly  inglorious  theme."  If 
angels  sang  in  her  prose,  they  refused  to  do  so  in  her 
"poetry."! 

One  other  incident  in  these  earliest  years  may  be 
mentioned.  She  tells  us  that  "at  the  age  of  twelve  years 
I  was  admitted  to  the  Congregational  (Trinitarian) 
Church."  She  had  a  horror  of  the  doctrine  of  predesti- 
nation and  denied  it  before  the  deacons  of  the  church. 
"Distinctly  do  I  recall  what  followed.     I  stoutly  main- 

^  Retros'pection  and  Introspection,     p.  10. 


26  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

tained  that  I  was  willing  to  trust  God,  and  take  my  chance 
of  spiritual  safety  with  my  brothers  and  sisters — not  one 
of  whom  had  then  made  any  profession  of  religion.  .  . 
This  was  so  earnestly  said,  that  even  the  oldest  church- 
members  wept.  After  the  meeting  was  over  they  came 
and  kissed  me.  To  the  astonishment  of  many,  the  good 
clergyman's  heart  was  melted,  and  he  received  me  into 
their  communion,  and  my  protest  along  with  me.'*  Her 
recollection  is  "distinctly"  vivid  as  to  details,  but  on 
the  one  concrete  fact  wherein  it  can  be  tested,  she  is  wrong. 
Instead  of  being  twelve  she  was  seventeen  years  of  age 
at  this  time.  The  official  record  of  the  Tilton  Congre- 
gational Church  contains  this  entry:  "1838.  July  26, 
Received  into  this  church,  Stephen  Grant,  Esq.,  John 
Gilly  and  his  wife  Hannah,  Mrs.  Susan  French,  wife  of 
William  French,  Miss  Mary  A.  M.  Baker,  by  profession, 
the  two  former  receiving  the  ordinance  of  baptism. 
Greenaugh  McQuestion,  Scribe."^  Why  was  this  incident 
put  at  the  age  of  twelve  years  .^  The  visit  of  Jesus  to 
the  Temple  at  the  same  age  may  have  suggested  another 
parallel. 

Through  these  early  years  the  hysterical,  cataleptic 
nature  of  Mary  Baker  continued  to  give  anxiety  to  the 
Baker  household  and  to  be  a  subject  of  general  talk  in  the 
neighborhood.     On  this  point  Miss  Milmine  writes  • 

At  home  Mary  was  still  allowed  to  have  her  own  way  as  com- 
pletely as  in  her  baby  days.  Indeed,  by  this  time  she,  as  well  as 
the  family,  had  come  to  consider  this  privilege  a  natural  right,  and 
she  grew  constantly  more  insistent  in  her  demands  upon  her  parents 
and  brothers  and  sisters,  who  had  found  by  long  experience  that 
the  only  way  to  live  at  all  with  Mary  was  to  give  in  to  all  her  whims. 
.    .    .   Mary's  hysteria  was,  of  course,  her  most  effective  argument 

1  Milmine,  History,  p.  20. 


LIFE  OF  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  27 

in  securing  her  way.  Like  the  sword  of  Damocles,  it  hung  perilously 
over  the  household,  which  constantly  surrendered  and  conceded 
and  made  shift  with  Mary  to  avert  the  inevitable  climax.  .  . 
These  attacks,  which  continued  until  very  late  in  life,  have  been 
described  to  the  writer  by  many  eyewitnesses,  some  of  whom  have 
watched  by  her  bedside  and  treated  her  in  Christian  Science  for  her 
aflQiction.  Mary  fell  headlong  to  the  floor,  writhing  and  screaming 
in  apparent  agony.  Again  she  dropped  as  lifeless,  and  lay  limp 
and  motionless,  until  restored.  At  other  times  she  became  rigid 
like  a  cataleptic,  and  continued  for  a  time  in  a  state  of  suspended 
animation.  .  .  Nothing  had  the  power  of  exciting  Mark  Baker 
like  one  of  Mary's  "fits,"  as  they  were  called.  His  neighbors  in 
Tilton  remember  him  as  he  went  to  fetch  Dr.  Ladd,  how  he  lashed 
his  horse  down  the  hill,  standing  upright  in  his  wagon  and  shouting 
in  his  tremendous  voice,  "Mary  is  dying."  ...  A  neighbor, 
passing  the  house  one  morning,  stopped  at  Mark's  gate  and  in- 
quired why  Mary,  who  was  at  that  moment  rushing  wildly  up  and 
down  the  second-story  piazza,  was  so  excited;  to  which  Mark  replied 
bitterly:  "The  Bible  says  Mary  Magdalen  had  seven  devils,  but 
our  Mary  has  got  ten."  ^ 

It  was  in  these  days  that  Charles  Poyen,  the  French 
mesmerist,  appeared  as  a  lecturer  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Tilton,  and  while  it  is  not  known  that  Mary  Baker  heard 
him  personally,  she  must  have  heard  about  him  and  his 
theories  and  practice,  because  of  the  fact  that  "Animal 
Magnetism"  came  to  occupy  a  large  place  in  her  own 
teaching  and  life.  The  influences  of  Shakerism  and 
transcendentalism  and  other  peculiar  cults  that  were 
then  rife  in  New  England  were  also  in  the  air  and  must 
have  reached  and  left  their  impress  on  her  sensitive  and 
absorbent  nature.  She  grew  up  in  a  kind  of  hotbed  of 
*'isms,"  and  her  life  was  the  proper  outgrowth  of  such  a 
nature  in  such  an  environment. 

2.  EARLY  MARRIAGES 

In  December,  1843,  at  the  age  of  twenty-two  Mary 
Baker  was  married  to  George  Washington  Glover,  who 

1  History,  pp.  19,  20. 


28  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

is  described  as  "a  big,  kind-hearted,  young  fellow,"  whose 
parents  were  neighbors  of  the  Bakers  at  Bow.  *'Wash" 
Glover  was  a  bricklayer  and,  attracted  by  higher  wages, 
had  gone  South.  On  one  of  his  visits  back  home  he 
married  Mary  Baker  and  took  her  as  his  bride  to  Wil- 
mington, N.  C.  Within  six  months,  in  June,  1844,  the 
young  husband  died  of  yellow  fever  and  left  his  widow 
without  money  among  strangers.  The  Freemasons, 
to  whose  order  George  Glover  belonged,  provided  the 
means  for  the  funeral  and  for  the  return  of  the  widow  to 
her  parents'  home  at  Tilton. 

In  September  of  the  same  year  Mrs.  Glover  gave  birth 
to  a  son,  her  only  child,  whom  she  named  George  Wash- 
ington after  his  father.  The  relation  of  the  mother  to 
this  son  is  one  of  the  peculiar  things  in  Mrs.  Eddy's 
career.  Her  sisters  and  brothers  were  now  married  and 
gone  from  home,  and  her  parents  were  growing  old. 
Mrs.  Glover  **took  it  for  granted  that  she  was  to  receive 
not  only  sympathy  of  her  relatives  but  their  support 
and  constant  service,  and  that  they  should  assume  the 
care  of  her  child."  She  frequently  left  it  with  her  aged 
parents  or  with  her  married  sister,  or  with  a  neighbor 
woman,  while  she  went  off  visiting.  The  child  annoyed 
her  irritable  nature,  and  her  father  said,  *'Mary  acts 
like  an  old  ewe  that  won't  own  its  lamb.  She  won't 
have  the  boy  near  her." 

When  the  boy  was  seven  years  old  the  mother  gave 
him  to  Mahala  Sanborn,  who  had  served  as  a  nurse 
in  the  family,  and,  when  this  worthy  woman  was  married 
to  Russell  Cheney  and  was  about  to  move  from  Tilton, 
she  begged  her  to  take  the  boy  with  her.  The  Cheneys 
lived  for  a  time  at  Groton,  N.  H.,  where  Mrs.  Glover 


LIFE  OF  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  29 

would  see  her  son  occasionally,  but  in  1857  they  removed  to 
Enterprise,  Minn.  In  1861  George  W.  Glover  enlisted 
in  the  Union  Army  and  made  an  excellent  record  as  a 
soldier,  and  afterwards  settled  in  Lead,  S.  D.,  where 
he  was  appointed  United  States  marshall.  Mrs.  Eddy 
never  saw  her  son  after  his  removal  to  the  West  at  the 
age  of  thirteen  until  1878,  when  he  was  thirty-four  years 
of  age  and  was  married  and  had  two  children. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  own  account  of  her  relations  with  her  son 
is  given  in  * 'Retrospection  and  Introspection"  as  follows: 

A  few  months  before  my  father's  second  marriage,  .  .  my  little 
son,  about  four  years  of  age,  was  sent  away  from  me,  and  put  under 
the  care  of  our  family  nurse,  who  had  married,  and  resided  in  the 
northern  part  of  New  Hampshire.  I  had  no  training  for  self- 
support,  and  my  home  I  regarded  as  very  precious.  The  night 
before  my  child  was  taken  from  me,  I  knelt  by  his  side  throughout 
the  dark  hours,  hoping  for  a  vision  of  relief  from  this  trial.  .  .  My 
dominant  thought  in  marrying  again  was  to  get  back  my  child, 
but  after  our  marriage  his  stepfather  was  not  willing  he  should 
have  a  home  with  me.  A  plot  was  consummated  for  keeping  us 
apart.  The  family  to  whose  care  he  was  committed,  very  soon 
removed  to  what  was  then  regarded  as  the  Far  West.  After  his 
removal  a  letter  was  read  to  my  little  son  informing  him  that  his 
mother  was  dead  and  buried.  Without  my  knowledge  he  was 
appointed  a  guardian,  and  I  was  then  informed  that  my  son  was 
lost.  Every  means  within  my  power  was  employed  to  find  him, 
but  without  success.  We  never  met  again  until  he  had  reached  the 
age  of  thirty-four,  had  a  wife  and  two  children,  and  by  a  strange 
providence  had  learned  that  his  mother  still  lived,  and  came  to  see 
me  in  Massachusetts. ^ 

However,  when  her  son  did  want  to  come  to  visit  her 
he  received  small  encouragement.  In  fact,  she  wrote 
him  a  letter  in  which  she  positively  forbade  him  to  come, 
and  said,  *'If  you  come  after  getting  this  letter  I  shall 
feel  you  have  no  regard  for  my  interest  or  feelings,  which 

1  Pp.  20,  21. 


80  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

I  hope  not  to  be  obliged  to  feel."  This  was  in  1907. 
In  1902  Mrs.  Eddy  built  her  son  a  handsome  house  and 
otherwise  provided  for  him.  In  1907,  for  some  reason 
she  tried  to  get  from  her  son  all  the  letters  she  had  ever 
written  him,  saying:  *'My  dear  Son:  The  enemy  to 
Christian  Science  is  by  the  wickedest  powers  of  hypnotism 
trying  to  do  me  all  the  harm  possible  by  acting  on  the 
minds  of  people  to  make  them  lie  about  me  and  my 
family."  She  then  asked  him  to  *'send  by  express  all 
the  letters  of  mine  that  I  have  written  you.  This  will 
be  a  great  comfort  to  your  mother  if  you  do  it.  Send 
all — all  of  them."  This  letter  with  its  peculiar  request 
appears  to  have  been  occasioned  by  the  fact  that  her  son 
was  about  to  bring  action  against  ten  leading  Christian 
Scientists  on  the  ground  that  they  were  controlling  her 
property  and  that  she  through  age  and  failing  faculties 
was  incompetent  to  manage  it.  Mrs.  Eddy  met  this 
by  placing  her  property  in  the  hands  of  trustees,  and 
several  months  later  the  suit  was  withdrawn.  With  this 
incident  is  closed  our  account  of  the  relations  of  Mrs. 
Eddy  with  her  son. 

In  these  early  years  of  her  life  spiritualism  swept  in 
a  wave  over  the  region,  and  Mrs.  Glover  developed  her 
susceptibility  as  a  medium.  Seances  were  held  at  Mark 
Baker's  house  and  there  was  considerable  excitement 
over  the  strange  phenomena.  One  elderly  woman  recalls 
a  night  spent  with  Mrs.  Glover  when  her  rest  was  fre- 
quently disturbed  by  mysterious  "rappings"  and  by  Mrs. 
Glover's  announcements  of  the  "appearance"  of  different 
spirits  as  they  came  and  went.  A  few  years  later  she 
received  "messages"  from  her  deceased  brother  Albert. 
Mrs.   Eddy   in   "Science   and   Health,"   second   edition, 


LIFE  OF  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  31 

(1878),  denied  that  she  ever  was  a  medium,  but  said, 
"We  have  explained  to  the  class  calling  themselves 
Spiritualists  how  their  signs  and  wonders  were  wrought, 
and  have  illustrated  them  by  doing  them."l  At  this 
time  also  Mrs.  Glover  began  to  do  some  writing  and 
* 'there  was  a  tradition  that  she  wrote  a  love  story  for 
*Godey's  Lady's  Book,*  and  this  gave  her  some  local 
fame  as  an  'authoress.'" 

In  1853  after  having  been  a  widow  for  nine  years 
and  at  the  age  of  thirty-two  Mrs.  Glover  was  married  to 
Daniel  Patterson,  a  peripatetic  dentist  who  made  oc- 
casional visits  to  Tilton.  Mrs.  Glover  was  so  ill  on  the 
day  of  the  wedding  that  Dr.  Patterson  had  to  carry 
her  downstairs  for  the  ceremony  and  then  back  again. 
He  is  described  as  a  handsome  man  with  a  full  black 
beard,  who  wore  a  frock  coat  and  a  silk  hat  and  was 
popular  with  his  patrons.  Nevertheless  he  earned  only 
a  meager  and  precarious  income,  and  their  married  life 
was  a  struggle  with  hard  circumstances.  They  first 
settled  in  Franklin,  a  village  near  Tilton. 

The  Pattersons  moved  from  place  to  place,  leaving 
behind  them  a  trail  of  stories  about  Mrs.  Patterson's 
invalidism  and  hysteria  and  "fits"  and  quarrels  with  her 
neighbors.  2  During  the  Civil  War  Dr.  Patterson  went 
South  seeking  employment  as  an  army  surgeon  and,  stray- 
ing into  enemy  lines,  was  captured  and  held  as  a  prisoner, 
and  Mrs.  Patterson  again  went  back  to  her  relatives. 
On  his  release  and  return  the  Pattersons  settled  in  Lynn, 
Mass.,  where  the  doctor  opened  an  office  in  1864.  Two 
years  later  Dr.  Patterson  left  his  wife,  and  they  never 

1  Milmine,  History,  pp.  30,  66. 

2  Ibid,  History,  p.  38. 


32  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

lived  together  again.  Mrs.  Eddy,  in  a  published  state- 
ment in  the  Boston  Post,  of  March  7,  1883,  said  that  her 
"husband  had  eloped  with  a  married  woman,"  but  her 
neighbors  never  heard  of  such  an  elopement,  and  Dr. 
Patterson  told  her  family  that  he  could  not  endure  her 
any  longer.  Dr.  Patterson  paid  his  wife  an  annuity  of 
$200  for  several  years,  but  in  1873  she  obtained  a  divorce 
from  him,  and  he  dropped  out  of  her  life,  dying  in  1896. 
It  was  while  living  with  Dr.  Patterson  that  Mrs. 
Patterson  heard  of  Dr.  P.  P.  Quimby,  the  mind  healer 
of  Portland,  Me.,  and  went  to  him  and  received  help 
from  him  for  her  illness  and  also  derived  from  him  her 
ideas,  but  this  affair  in  her  life  is  so  important  that  it 
will  be  reserved  for  a  separate  chapter,  and  this  outline 
will  be  continued  as  a  framework  for  the  events  more 
directly  connected  with  her  main  work. 

3.  WANDER  YEARS 

Mrs.  Patterson  first  visited  Quimby  in  1862  and  again 
in  1864,  and  then  after  her  separation  from  her  husband 
she  wandered  around  staying  with  various  families  until 
she  settled  in  Lynn  in  1870.  The  story  of  these  years  is 
one  of  a  constant  succession  of  quarrels  in  these  homes. 
Although  only  a  visitor  occasionally  paying  a  nominal 
rent,  yet  she  was  extremely  exacting  in  her  demands, 
doing  no  work  and  requiring  everyone  to  serve  her. 
"Untrained  in  any  kind  of  paid  work,  she  fell  back  upon 
the  favor  of  her  friends  or  chance  acquaintances,  living 
precariously  upon  their  bounty,  and  obliged  to  go  from 
house  to  house,  as  one  family  after  another  wearied  of 
her."     During   these   years   she   was   practicing  healing 


LIFE  OF  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  33 

herself,  calling  it  "Moral  Science"  and  attributing  it 
to  Quimby.  Her  first  announcement  appeared  in  the 
Banner  of  Light,  a  Spiritualist  organ,  on  July  4,  1868, 
and  read  in  part:  "Any  Person  desiring  to  learn  how  to 
heal  the  sick  can  receive  of  the  undersigned  instructions 
that  will  enable  them  to  commence  healing  on  a  principle 
of  science  with  a  success  far  beyond  any  of  the  present 
modes.  .  .  Address,  Mrs.  Mary  B.  Glover,  Amesbury, 
Mass.'*  In  all  her  teaching  she  represented  her  system  as 
being  that  of  P.  P.  Quimby,  as  will  be  brought  out  later  on. 
When  her  husband  left  her  at  Lynn,  Mrs.  Patterson 
went  to  room  at  the  Russells,  but  she  soon  had  to  leave 
because  Russell's  "wife,  who  had  greatly  admired  her 
when  she  first  came,  soon  declared  she  could  not  endure 
Mrs.  Patterson's  remaining  there."  She  then  went  to 
Mrs.  Clark,  and  then  to  the  home  of  Mrs.  Armenius 
Newhall,  but  soon  afterward  .left  the  house,  at  Mrs. 
Newhall's  request.  Mrs.  James  Wheeler,  of  Swampscott, 
"then  offered  her  shelter,"  where,  according  to  an  affidavit 
of  Mrs.  Julia  Walcott,  a  sister  of  Mrs.  Patterson's  former 
landlord  and  an  intimate  friend  of  Mrs.  Wheeler,  "Mrs. 
Patterson  was  the  means  of  creating  discord  in  the  Wheeler 
family."  From  the  Wheelers  she  went  to  live  with  Mrs. 
Mary  Ellis,  and  next  we  find  her  with  Hiram  Craft  at 
East  Stoughton,  where,  according  to  an  affidavit  of  Ira 
Holmes,  a  brother  of  Mrs.  Craft,  "she  caused  trouble  in 
the  household,  and  urged  Mr.  Craft  to  get  a  bill  of  divorce 
from  his  wife,  Mary  Craft."  She  then  went  to  the  home 
of  Captain  Webster,  in  Amesbury,  Mass.  A  long  affidavit 
by  Mary  Bartlett,  a  granddaughter  of  Captain  Webster, 
gives  an  account  of  her  trouble-making  in  this  home, 
which  at  last  grew  so  exasperating  that  Captain  Webster's 


34  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

son  put  Mrs.  Patterson  out  of  the  house  and  locked  the 
door  against  her. 

The  friendless  woman  was  then  taken  into  the  home  of 
Miss  Sarah  Bageley,  a  dressmaker  and  Spiritualist  of 
Amesbury,  Mrs.  Patterson  teaching  her  the  Quimby 
method  of  healing.  By  this  time  it  was  understood 
that  Mrs.  Glover,  who  had  now  again  adopted  this  name, 
was  writing  a  book,  and  she  was  working  at  manuscripts 
which  eventually  resulted  in  * 'Science  and  Health." 
From  Amesbury  she  drifted  to  Stoughton,  Mass.,  to  the 
home  of  Mrs.  Sally  Wentworth,  another  Spiritualist,  where 
she  had  the  usual  quarrel  and  on  leaving  was  charged 
with  having  tried  to  set  the  house  on  fire.^ 

While  with  the  Wentworths  Mrs.  Glover  was  writing 
manuscripts,  and  she  wrote  out  instructions  for  Mrs. 
Wentworth,  to  direct  her  in  healing  the  sick.  Horace 
T.  Wentworth,  a  son,  had  these  instructions  in*  Mrs. 
Glover's  own  handwriting  in  his  possession  when  Miss 
Milmine  wrote  her  "History  "  and  she  gives  two  pages 
from  the  original  manuscript,  literally  reproducing  the 
spelling  and  punctuation.  We  here  insert  them  as  they 
contain  the  germ  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  system  and  also  show 
her  unassisted  English  style: 

An  argument  for  the  sick  having  what  is  termed  fever  chills  and 
heat  with  sleepless  nights,  and  called  spinal  inflammation. 

The  patient  has  been  doctoring  the  sick  one  patient  is  an  opium 
eater,  with  catarrh,  great  fear  of  the  air,  etc.  Another  had  inflam- 
mation of  the  joints  or  rheumatism,  and  liver  complaint  another 
scrofula  and  rheumatism,  and  another  dyspepsia,  all  of  them  having 
the  most  intense  fear. 

First  the  fever  is  to  be  argued  down.  What  is  heat  and  chills 
we  answer  nothing  but  an  effect  produced  upon  the  body  by  images 

^  Affidavits  giving  the  details  of  this  affair  made  by  a  son  and  a 
niece  of  Mrs.  Wentworth  are  given  in  Milmine,  History,  p.  125. 


LIFE  OF  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  35 

of  disease  before  the  spiritual  senses  wherefore  you  must  say  of 
heat  and  chill  you  are  not  hot  you  are  not  cold  you  are  only  the 
effect  of  fright  there  is  no  such  thing  as  heat  and  cold  if  there  were 
you  would  not  grow  hot  when  angry  or  abashed  or  frightened  and 
the  temperature  around  not  changed  in  the  least. 

Inflammation  is  not  inflammation  or  redness  and  soreness  of  any 
part  this  is  your  belief  only  and  this  belief  is  the  red  dragon  the 
King  of  beasts  which  means  this  belief  of  inflammation  is  the  leading 
lie  out  of  which  you  get  your  fright  that  causes  chills  and  heat. 
Now  look  it  down  cause  your  patient  to  look  at  this  truth  with  you 
call  upon  their  spiritual  senses  to  look  with  your  view  which  sees  no 
such  image  and  thus  waken  them  out  of  their  dream  that  is  causing 
them  so  much  suffering. l 

These  years  were  strewn  with  a  constant  succession  of 
personal  quarrels  and  estrangements.  After  the  death 
of  Mark  Baker,  Mrs.  Eddy's  father,  in  1865,  her  own 
sister,  Mrs.  Tilton,  closed  her  door  against  her.  On  this 
point  Miss  Milmine  writes: 

When  Mrs.  Tilton,  who  had  taken  care  of  Mrs.  Patterson  from 
childhood  and  supported  her  in  her  widowhood,  finally  turned 
against  her  sister,  she  was  as  hard  as  she  had  been  generous  before. 
"I  loved  Mary  best  of  all  my  sisters  and  brothers,"  she  said  to  her 
friends,  "but  it  is  all  gone  now."  The  bitterness  of  her  feeling 
lasted  to  the  day  of  her  death.  She  instructed  her  family  not  to 
allow  Mary  to  see  her  after  death  nor  to  attend  her  funeral,  and  her 
wishes  were  carried  out.  2 

When  the  Christian  Science  Church  in  Concord,  N.  H., 
was  dedicated  on  July  16,  1904,  a  North  Groton  corre- 
spondent, under  the  head,  *'Time  Makes  Changes," 
wrote  in  the  "Plymouth  Record": 

With  the  dedication  of  the  Christian  Science  Church  at  Concord, 
the  gift  of  Mary  Baker  Glover  Patterson  Eddy,  the  thoughts  of 
many  of  the  older  residents  have  turned  back  to  the  time  when 
Mrs.  Eddy,  as  the  wife  of  Daniel  Patterson,  lived  in  this  place. 

1  Milmine,  History,  pp.  130,  131. 

2  Ibid,  p.  108. 


36  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

These  people  remember  the  woman  at  that  time  as  one  who  carried 
herself  above  her  fellows.  With  no  stretch  of  the  imagination  they 
remember  her  ungovernable  temper  and  hysterical  ways,  and  partic- 
ularly well  do  they  remember  the  night  ride  of  one  of  the  citizens 
who  went  for  her  husband  to  calm  her  in  one  of  her  unreasonable 
moods.  The  Mrs.  Eddy  of  to-day  is  not  the  Mrs.  Patterson  of  then, 
for  this  is  a  sort  of  Mr.  Hyde  and  Dr.  Jekyll  case,  and  the  woman 
is  now  credited  with  many  charitable  and  kindly  acts.i 

From  the  Wentworths  in  Stoughton  Mrs.  Glover 
returned  to  her  friend,  Miss  Bageley  in  Amesbury,  where 
two  years  before  she  had  met  with  Richard  Kennedy, 
then  a  youth  of  eighteen,  and  had  discerned  in  him  a 
promising  student  and  had  given  him  lessons  in  the 
Quimby  art  of  healing.  She  now  proposed  to  him  a 
partnership  in  which  she  would  teach  and  he  would  practice 
this  art.  Up  to  this  time  she  had  little  success  herself 
in  healing,  and  in  fact  she  was  chary  of  trying  her  hand 
at  the  business  down  to  the  end  of  her  life.  This  ar- 
rangement was  entered  into,  and  this  agreement  marked 
a  turning  point  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  life  and  brought  these 
troubled  wander  years  to  an  end. 

4.  AT  WORK  IN  LYNN 

In  June,  1870,  a  sign  appeared  in  the  yard  in  front  of 
a  house  in  Lynn,  bearing  the  announcement,  *'Dr. 
Kennedy."  Several  rooms  on  the  second  floor  had  been 
sublet  from  a  young  woman  who  conducted  a  school  on 
the  first  floor.  Kennedy  used  the  front  room  as  an 
office,  and  Mrs.  Glover  occupied  the  other  rooms  as  her 
living  quarters  and  as  a  schoolroom  for  her  pupils,  her 
card  bearing  the  announcement,  *'Mrs.  Mary  Glover, 
Teacher   of   Moral   Science."     Soon   patients   began   to 

1  Milmine,  History,  pp.  35,  36. 


LIFE  OF  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  37 

appear  in  Dr.  Kennedy's  office  and  students  in  Mrs. 
Glover's  classes,  and  for  the  first  time  in  her  life  Mary- 
Baker  Glover  began  to  be  eased  of  the  burden  of  poverty 
and  to  experience  the  joys  of  prosperity.  Her  students 
were  required  to  copy  a  Quimby  manuscript  which  she 
called  "The  Science  of  Man,"  and  they  obligated  them- 
selves to  pay  one  hundred  dollars  in  advance  for  the  course 
of  lessons  and  ten  per  cent  of  their  annual  income  from 
their  practice. 

For  twelve  years  Mrs.  Eddy  continued  her  work  in 
Lynn,  until  she  removed  to  Boston  in  1882.  These  were 
trying  years  in  many  ways  and  brought  out  the  masterful 
qualities  of  her  strange  personality.  She  was  nearly 
fifty  years  of  age,  with  no  means  or  influential  friends 
and  with  very  meager  education,  and  was  burdened 
and  often  tortured  with  ill  health,  when  she  found  herself 
and  started  out  on  her  course  that  was  destined  to  grow 
into  a  great  career  and  world-wide  fame.  During  these 
years  she  developed  her  system  of  healing  and  wrote  her 
book  * 'Science  and  Health,"  the  first  edition  of  which 
she  was  able  to  get  published  in  1875.  Her  classes  grew, 
her  charges  increased  from  one  hundred  to  three  hundred 
dollars  for  a  course  of  twelve  lessons  and  then  the  course 
was  reduced  to  seven  lessons  for  the  same  price,  and  gold 
began  to  flow  in  copious  streams  into  her  coffers; 
within  eighteen  months  she  had  $6000  to  her  credit 
in  the  bank.  She  began  to  extend  her  private  teaching 
to  public  speaking  and  at  length  developed  her  system 
of  healing  into  a  religion  and  founded  a  church.  At 
last  she  assumed  the  office  of  minister  and  blossomed 
out  as  the  *'Rev.  Mary  Baker  Eddy,"  only  stopping 
short  of  appending  a  *'D.  D."  to  her  name.     She  was 


38  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

already  dreaming  of  a  great  religion  and  world  fame, 
and  one  day  she  said  to  Kennedy,  "Richard,  you  will 
live  to  hear  the  church  bells  ring  out  my  birthday." 
Her  dream  came  true. 

At  this  time  Miss  Milmine  gives  us  a  vivid  glimpse 
into  her  classroom: 

Whatever  disagreement  Mrs.  Glover  had  with  individual  students, 
their  number  constantly  increased,  and  for  every  deserter  there  were 
several  new  adherents.  Her  following  grew  not  only  in  numbers 
but  in  zeal;  her  influence  over  her  students  and  their  veneration  of 
her  were  subjects  of  comment  and  astonishment  in  Lynn.  Of  some 
of  them  it  could  be  truly  said  that  they  lived  only  for  and  through 
Mrs.  Glover.  They  continued  to  attend  in  some  manner  to  their 
old  occupations,  but  they  became  like  strangers  to  their  own  families, 
and  their  personalities  seemed  to  have  undergone  an  eclipse.  Like 
their  teacher,  they  could  talk  of  only  one  thing  and  had  but  one 
vital  interest.  One  disciple  let  two  of  his  three  children  die  under 
metaphysical  treatment  without  a  murmur.  Another  married  the 
woman  whom  Mrs.  Glover  designated.  .  .  The  closer  students,  who 
constituted  Mrs.  Glover'scabinet  and  bodyguard,  executed  her  com- 
missions, transacted  her  business,  and  were  always  at  her  call.  To-day 
some  of  these  who  have  long  been  accounted  as  enemies  by  Mrs. 
Eddy,  and  whom  she  has  anathematized  in  print  and  discredited 
on  the  witness  stand,  still  declare  that  what  they  got  from  her  was 
beyond  equivalent  in  gold  or  silver.  They  speak  of  a  certain 
spiritual  or  emotional  exaltation  which  she  was  able  to  impart  in 
her  classroom;  a  feeling  so  strong  that  it  was  like  the  birth  of  a  new 
understanding  and  seemed  to  open  to  them  a  new  heaven  and  a 
new  earth.  .  .  They  lived  by  a  new  set  of  values;  the  color 
seemed  to  fade  out  of  the  physical  world  about  them;  men  and 
women  became  shadow-like,  and  their  humanity  grew  pale.  The 
reality  of  pain  and  pleasure,  sin  and  grief,  love  and  death,  once 
denied,  the  only  positive  thing  in  their  lives  was  their  belief — and 
that  was  almost  wholly  negation. 

5.  ENTER:  ASA  GILBERT  EDDY.  THIRD  HUSBAND 

Among  those  who  came  within  the  sphere  of  her  at- 
traction was  Daniel  H.  Spofford,  a  worker  in  a  shoe  factory, 
who  became  her  student  in   1875  and  was  soon  "Dr. 

1  History,  pp.  155,  15e. 


LIFE  OF  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  39 

Spofford,  Scientific  Physician,"  and  had  a  flourishing 
practice.  Spofford  brought  Asa  Gilbert  Eddy  to  Mrs. 
Glover  as  a  student,  and  presently  he  gave  her  the  name 
that  she  took  and  made  famous  as  the  founder  of  a  new 
religion.  Eddy  was  a  weaver  and  was  described  by  people 
who  knew  him  in  Lynn  *'as  a  quiet,  dull,  little  man, 
docile  and  yielding  up  to  a  certain  point,  but  capable  of 
dogged  obstinancy.  He  was  short  of  stature,  slow  in 
his  movements,  and  always  taciturn."  He  was  a  bachelor 
who  did  his  own  washing  and  his  sister-in-law  said  "he 
could  do  up  a  shirt  as  well  as  any  woman."  This  simple- 
minded  plastic  soul  at  once  yielded  to  Mrs.  Glover*s 
magnetic  personality  and  was  presently  her  favorite  so 
obviously  as  to  excite  comment  and  jealousy  among 
the  other  students.  On  Sunday  evening,  December  31, 
1876,  Eddy  brought  to  Spofford  a  note  which  read  as 
follows:  "Dear  Student:  For  reasons  best  known  to 
myself  I  have  changed  my  views  in  respect  to  marrying 
and  ask  you  to  hand  this  note  to  the  Unitarian  clergyman 
and  please  wait  for  an  answer.  Your  teacher,  M.  B.  G." 
"Hand  or  deliver  reply  to  Dr.  Eddy." 

Spofford  was  astonished  out  of  measure  and  said: 
"You've  been  very  quiet  about  all  this,  Gilbert."  "Indeed, 
Dr.  Spofford,"  said  Eddy,  "I  didn't  know  a  thing  about 
it  myself  until  last  night."  On  looking  at  the  marriage 
license  Spofford  noticed  that  the  ages  of  both  the  bride 
and  groom  were  put  down  at  forty  years.  As  he  knew 
that  Eddy  himself  was  only  forty  but  that  Mrs.  Glover 
was  then  fifty-six,  "he  remarked  upon  the  inaccuracy, 
but  Mr.  Eddy  explained  that  the  statement  of  age  was 
a  mere  formality  and  that  a  few  years  more  or  less  was 
of  no  consequence."     It  will  be  remembered  that  Mrs. 


40  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Eddy  also  misstated  her  age  at  which  she  was  received 
into  the  Congregational  Church,  and  this  was  another 
instance  in  which  *'a  few  years  more  or  less  was  of  no 
consequence."  *'Dr."  Eddy  was  a  very  useful  addition 
to  Mrs.  Eddy's  establishment.  *'He  would  solicit  students 
for  his  wife  or  take  up  the  collection  at  the  Sunday  service 
when  she  preached  the  sermon."  "He  did  what  he 
was  told,"  and  after  his  marriage  he  had  plenty  of  it  to  do. 

6.  LAWSUITS  AT  LYNN 

These  years  at  Lynn  were  also  marked  by  interminable 
quarrels  and  lawsuits.  Her  relations  with  Richard 
Kennedy  lasted  only  two  years,  and  she  then  regarded 
him  as  one  of  her  bitterest  enemies  and  poured  upon  him 
the  vials  of  her  wrath,  charging  him  with  exercising 
"Malicious  Animal  Magnetism"  against  her  and  branding 
him  in  the  third  edition  of  "Science  and  Health"  as 
"the  Nero  of  to-day."  Next,  Daniel  H.  Spofford,  who 
had  become  the  publisher  of  her  book,  fell  under  her  dis- 
pleasure and  was  expelled  from  the  Christian  Scientists* 
Association,  receiving  the  following  notice:  "Dr.  D.  H. 
Spofford  of  Newburyport  has  been  expelled  from  the 
Association  of  Christian  Scientists  for  immorality  and  as 
unworthy  to  be  a  member."  The  word  "immorality" 
as  used  by  Mrs.  Eddy  did  not  at  all  mean  the  sin  that 
usually  goes  under  that  name,  but  only  personal  dis- 
agreement with  her.  This  is  only  one  of  the  instances 
in  which  she  uses  words  in  a  sense  wholly  peculiar  to 
herself.  Years  afterwards  she  accused  a  prominent  woman 
in  the  mother  church  in  Boston  of  being  "an  adulteress," 
and  when  the  frantic  woman  begged  to  know  the  ground 


LIFE  OF  Mrs.  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  41 

of  such  a  charge,  she  repHed,  "You  have  adulterated  the 
Truth;  what  are  you,  then,  but  an  adulteress?"  It  would 
take  a  long  catalogue  of  names  to  mention  all  the  students 
that  met  a  like  fate.  Already  she  wa^  exercising  the 
powers  of  an  absolute  despot  and  her  simple  and  sudden 
word  would  dismiss  anybody  from  her  school  or  church 
and  blacken  the  name  of  the  victim  with  some  grave  but 
utterly  unfounded  charge. 

Lawsuits  flew  thick  and  fast.  The  air  was  surcharged 
with  litigation.  She  brought  suit  against  George  Tuttle 
and  Charles  Stanley,  two  of  her  students,  for  unpaid 
tuition.  The  case  was  tried  before  Judge  George  F. 
Choate,  and  in  rendering  a  decision  for  the  defendant 
Judge  Choate  said: 

Upon  a  careful  examination  I  do  not  find  any  instructions  given 
by  her  nor  any  explanations  of  her  "science"  or  "method  of  healing" 
which  appear  intelligible  to  ordinary  comprehension,  or  which 
could  in  any  way  be  of  value  in  fitting  defendant  as  a  competent 
and  successful  practitioner  of  any  intelligible  art  or  method  of 
healing  the  sick,  and  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  the  consideration 
for  the  agreement  has  wholly  failed,  and  I  so  find. 

This  court  decision  is  interesting  as  being  the  first 
legal  evaluation  of  Christian  Science. 

In  1877  George  W.  Barry,  one  of  her  students,  brought 
suit  against  Mrs.  Eddy  for  service  rendered  in  attending 
to  her  business  and  obtained  judgment  against  her. 
In  1878  she  sued  Richard  Kennedy  for  two  years'  in- 
struction and  lost.  The  same  year  she  sued  Daniel 
Spofford  to  recover  royalty  on  his  practice  and  lost.  She 
lost   every   case   brought   for   the   recovery   of   tuition,  i 

1  Peabody,  Masquerade,  p.  123. 


42  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

7.  MALICIOUS  ANIMAL  MAGNETISM 

The  case  of  Daniel  Spofford,  which  was  brought  to 
trial  at  Salem,  Mass.,  in  May,  1878,  introduces  the  subject 
of  Malicious  Animal  Magnetism,  which  came  to  be  known 
in  the  Eddy  household  as  *'M.  A.  M.,"  and  also  as 
"Malicious  Mesmerism."  Every  religion  must  have  a 
devil,  and  *'M.  A.  M."  was  Mrs  Eddy's  Satan.  By  this 
name  she  meant  the  power  of  one  mind,  called  by  her 
**mortal  mind,"  to  influence  and  injure  and  even  poison 
and  drive  insane  and  kill  another  mind.  This  notion 
became  her  obsession  and  infatuation  that  plagued  her 
day  and  night,  the  mortal  fear  that  tortured  her  and  gave 
her  no  security  and  rest.  It  early  became  implanted  in 
her  mind,  and  in  the  first  edition  (1875)  of  *'Science 
and  Health"  we  read: 


In  coming  years  the  person  or  mind  that  hates  his  neighbor  will 
have  no  need  to  traverse  his  fields,  to  destroy  his  flocks  and  herds, 
and  spoil  his  vines;  or  to  enter  his  house  to  demoralize  his  house- 
hold; for  the  evil  mind  will  do  this  through  mesmerism;  and  not  in 
propria  personae  be  seen  committing  the  deed.  Unless  this  terrible 
hour  be  met  and  restrained  by  science,  mesmerism,  that  scourge  of 
man,  will  leave  nothing  sacred  when  mind  begins  to  act  under 
direction  of  conscious  power.  1 


In  the  thirteenth  edition  of  the  same  book  she  says; 


The  evidence  of  the  power  that  the  mind  exercises  over  the  body 
has  accumulated  in  weight  and  clearness  until  it  culminates,  at  this 
period,  in  scientific  statement  and  proof.  Our  courts  recognize  the 
evidence  that  goes  to  prove  the  committal  of  crime;  then,  if  it  be 
clear  that  the  so-called  mind  of  one  mortal  has  killed  another,  is  not 
this  mind  proved  a  murderer,  and  shall  not  the  man  be  sentenced 
whose  mind,  with  malice  aforethought,  kills? 

1  Science  and  Health,  1875,  p.  123. 


LIFE  OF  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  43 

This  demon  proved  all  its  powers  of  ubiquitous  presence 
and  evil  influence  and  malignant  destructiveness  in  her 
own  household.  It  bedeviled  her  printers,  froze  her 
water  pipes,  and  made  the  boiler  leak.  It  got  into  her 
household  furniture  and  kitchen  utensils,  her  coal  and 
blankets  and  feather  pillows  and  silver  spoons  and  caused 
them  to  disappear  as  if  by  some  magician's  wand.  She 
accused  nearly  all  her  servants  of  stealing  and  charged 
their  perversity  to  "M.  A.  M."  She  would  send  servants 
to  outlying  towns  to  mail  letters  and  dispatch  telegrams 
so  that  they  would  not  pass  through  Boston  where  the 
mail  clerks  and  telegraph  operators  were  supposed  to  be 
"mesmerized"  and  could  poison  the  messages  with  their 
evil  power.  A  long  succession  of  tenants  and  housekeepers 
went  wrong  under  the  same  evil  influence.  Any  personal 
annoyance  or  irritation  that  she  experienced  was  in- 
stantly charged  to  this  devil.  Friend  after  friend  fell 
under  this  accusation  and  was  forthwith  excommunicated. 
No  language  could  be  bitter  enough,  no  punishment 
could  be  dire  enough  to  express  her  sense  of  the  horror 
of  this  evil  thing,  l 

The  first  one  to  fall  under  this  condemnation  m  its 
fell  fury  was  Richard  Kennedy,  and  the  following  passage 
from   the   chapter   on   "Demonology"   in   ^'Science   and 

1  This  obsession  as  to  the  evil  presence  and  power  of  the  Devil  was 
rampant  in  the  Middle  Ages  and  was  one  of  the  terrors  of  those 
dark  days.  "The  highest  authorities  of  the  Church  constantly 
nourished  that  awe  of  the  Devil  and  his  tools  which  filled  the  mind, 
and  they  could  do  it  without  scruple,  being  themselves  seized  by 
the  same  terror.  Thus  Pope  John  XXII  promulgated,  A.D.  1303, 
two  letters  in  which  he  complains  that  he  himself  not  less  than 
countless  numbers  of  his  sheep,  was  in  danger  of  his  life  by  the  acts 
of  sorcerers  who  could  send  devils  into  mirrors  and  rings,  and  make 
away  with  men  by  their  words  alone."  Viktor  Rydberg,  The 
Magic  of  the  Middle  Ages,  p.  162. 


44  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Health,"  edition  of  1881,  was  aimed  at  him  and  illustrates 
her  style  and  spirit: 


The  Nero  of  to-day,  regaling  himself  through  a  mental  method 
with  the  tortures  of  individuals,  is  repeating  history,  and  will  fall 
upon  his  own  sword,  and  it  shall  pierce  him  through.  Let  him 
remember  this  when,  in  the  dark  recesses  of  thought,  he  is  robbing, 
committing  adultery,  and  killing;  when  he  is  attempting  to  turn 
friend  away  from  friend,  ruthlessly  stabbing  the  quivering  heart; 
when  he  is  clipping  the  thread  of  life,  and  giving  to  the  grave  youth 
and  its  rainbow  hues;  when  he  is  turning  back  the  reviving  sufferer 
to  her  bed  of  pain,  clouding  her  first  morning  after  years  of  night; 
and  the  Nemesis  of  that  hour  shall  point  to  the  tyrant's  fate,  who 
falls  at  length  upon  the  sword  of  justice. 


And  now  we  come  to  the  case  of  Daniel  Spofford. 
After  her  quarrel  with  him  her  hatred  for  him  grew  until 
it  could  no  longer  contain  itself.  "Accordingly,"  as  Miss 
Milmine  tells  the  story,  "Mrs.  Eddy  got  out  a  postscript 
to  'Science  and  Health.'  The  second  edition,  which 
Mr.  Spofford  had  labored  to  prepare,  was  hastily  revised 
and  converted  into  a  running  attack  upon  him,  hurried  to 
press,  labeled  Volume  II.,  and  sent  panting  after  'Science 
and  Health,'  which  was  not  labeled  Volume  I.,  and  which 
had  already  been  in  the  world  three  years.  This  odd 
little  brown  book,  with  the  ark  and  troubled  waves  on 
the  cover,  is  made  up  of  a  few  chapters  snatched  from 
the  1875  edition,  interlarded  with  vigorous  rhetoric 
such  as  the  following  apostrophe  to  Spofford:" 


Behold!  thou  criminal  mental  marauder,  that  would  blot  out  the 
sunshine  of  earth,  that  would  sever  friends,  destroy  virtue,  put  out 
truth,  and  murder  in  secret  the  innocent  befouling  thy  track  with 
the  trophies  of  thy  guilt — I  say,  "Behold  the  cloud  no  bigger  than  a 
man's  hand,"  already  rising  in  the  horizon  of  truth,  to  pour  down 
upon  thy  guilty  head  the  hailstones  of  doom. 


LIFE  OF  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  45 

This  "doom"  came  down  upon  *'the  guilty  head"  of 
Spofford  in  the  form  of  a  bill  filed  before  the  Supreme 
Judicial  Court  at  Salem  in  the  spring  of  1878,  charging 
him  with  practicing  witchcraft  upon  one  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
former  students,  Lucretia  L.  S.  Brown.  Miss  Brown  was 
a  maiden  woman  of  fifty  years  of  age,  who  was  an  invalid 
and  had  been  healed  by  Christian  Science  and  suffered 
a  relapse.  Mrs.  Eddy  persuaded  her  that  Dr.  Spofford 
was  practicing  "Malicious  Animal  Magnetism"  upon  her 
and  that  was  the  cause  of  her  relapse;  and  she  selected 
twelve  of  her  students  and  trained  them  to  serve  as  wit- 
nesses, saying  to  one  of  them,  who  protested  at  the  railway 
station  as  they  were  about  to  take  the  train  for  Salem 
that  she  did  not  know  anything  about  the  case,  "You 
will  be  told  what  to  say." 

The  case  came  to  trial  before  a  crowded  court  room, 
for  it  attracted  great  attention  in  the  newspapers.  Mr. 
Spofford  did  not  appear,  but  his  attorney  filed  a  demurrer, 
which  Judge  Gray  sustained,  "declaring  with  a  smile 
that  it  was  not  within  the  power  of  the  court  to  control 
Mr.  Spofford's  mind." 

Miss  Milmine  concludes  her  detailed  account  of  this 
celebrated  case  with  these  striking  comments: 


So,  after  a  lapse  of  nearly  two  centuries,  another  charge  of  witch- 
craft was  made  before  the  court  in  Salem  village.  But  it  was  an 
anachronism  merely  and  elicited  such  ridicule  that  it  was  hard  to 
realize  that,  because  of  charges  quite  as  fanciful  one  hundred  and 
twenty-six  persons  were  once  lodged  in  Salem  jail,  nineteen  persons 
were  hanged,  and  an  entire  community  was  plunged  into  anguish 
and  horror. 

During  the  long  years  that  the  grass  had  been  growing  and 
withering  above  the  graves  of  Martha  Corey  and  Rebecca  Nurse 
and  their  wretched  companions,  one  of  the  most  important  of  all 
possible  changes  had  taken  place  in  the  world — a  change  in  the 


46  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

mode  of  thinking.  The  works  of  Descartes,  Locke,  and  Sir  Isaac 
Newton  had  become  a  common  inheritance;  the  relation  of  physical 
effect  with  physical  cause  had  become  established  even  in  ignorant 
and  unthinking  minds,  and  a  schoolboy  of  1878  would  have  rejected 
as  absurd  the  evidence  upon  which  Judge  Hawthorne  condemned  a 
woman  like  Mary  Easty  to  death. l 


A  fitting  climax  and  conclusion  of  Mr.  Spofford's 
relations  with  the  Eddy  people  in  Lynn  came  in  a  cele- 
brated case  which  was  brought  in  the  Municipal  Com-t 
in  December  following  the  trial  at  Salem.  To  this  case 
Miss  Milmine  devotes  an  entire  chapter  (ch.  XIII)  of 
her  *'History,"  giving  part  of  the  court  records  and  of 
the  testimony.  Mr.  Peabody  gives  an  account  of  it 
from  a  lawyer's  point  of  view  (in  ch.  XI  of  his  book), 
strongly  hinting  that  Mrs.  Eddy  was  back  of  the  "con- 
spiracy," but  Dr.  Powell  in  his  book  (page  80)  condenses 
it  into  a  brief  summary  which  is  sufficient  for  our  purpose 
and  the  writer  here  transcribes  it: 


The  last  strange  chapter  in  as  strange  a  story  as  ever  yet  was 
told  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  strange  career  was  the  indictment  the  following 
December  of  Asa  Gilbert  Eddy,  Mrs.  Eddy's  husband,  and  Edward 
J.  Arens,  one  of  her  students,  by  the  grand  jury  on  the  charge  of 
conspiracy  to  murder  Daniel  H.  Spofford.  The  evidence  was 
dubious  and  inconsequential.  No  inference  can  to-day  be  drawn 
from  it  except  that  there  was  probably  hysteria  on  one  side  and 
panic  on  the  other.  The  case  was  nolle  procsed,  and  never  came  to 
trial.  Mr.  Eddy  paid  the  costs,  and  Mr.  Spofford  still  lives  (1907) 
and  at  the  age  of  sixty-five  enjoys  the  confidence  of  those  who 
know  him  well. 

1  History,  pp.  218-244.  On  Malicious  Animal  Magnetism,  see 
also  Powell,  Christian  Science,  ch.  VI,  and  Peabody,  The  Religio- 
Medical  Masquerade,  ch.  XII.  For  an  account  of  the  belief  in  and 
the  torture  or  witches,  "which  must  forever  be  considered  as  among 
the  most  fearful  calamities  in  human  history,"  see  A.  D.  White's 
History  of  the  Warfare  of  Science  with  Theology,  vol.  I,  pp.  350- 
363.  II:  135-167. 


LIFE  OF  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  47 

xMiss  Wilbur  also  devotes  to  this  case  a  chapter  (ch.  XVI) 
of  her  "Life  of  Mary  Baker  Eddy,"  which  virtually  gives 
Mrs.  Eddy's  version  of  the  affair,  stating  that  the  * 'mon- 
strous charge  was  thus  dismissed  without  a  trial,"  and  de- 
ploring that  *'the  men  accused  were  made  to  appear  too 
insignificant  in  the  world's  affairs  to  warrant  a  full  and 
clear  exoneration."  It  seems  to  be  a  perplexing  point 
in  the  case  that  Dr.  Eddy  was  willing  to  pay  the  costs 
when  it  was  dismissed. 

In  closing  this  account  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  work  at  Lynn 
it  will  be  sufficient  to  note  that  she  organized  the  Christian 
Science  Church  in  1879  and  her  Metaphysical  College 
in  1881.  But  the  numerous  quarrels  and  lawsuits  and 
dissensions  of  the  Christian  Scientists  made  them  un- 
popular in  that  city,  "and  to  this  day  the  Christian 
Science  Church  there  has  never  prospered.  .  .  They 
were  constantly  quarreling  and  bickering  among  them- 
selves, accusing  each  other  of  fraud,  dishonesty,  witch- 
craft, bad  temper,  greed  of  money,  hypocrisy,  and  finally 
of  a  conspiracy  to  murder.  Unquestionably  Mrs.  Eddy, 
as  the  accepted  messenger  of  God,  was  more  severely 
criticized  for  her  part  in  these  altercations  than  if  she  had 
appeared  before  the  courts  merely  as  a  citizen  of  Lynn, 
and  this  criticism  had  much  to  do  with  the  cloud  of  suspi- 
cion and  distrust  which  hung  over  the  Church  when,  in 
the  early  part  of  the  winter  of  1882,  Mrs.  Eddy  left 
Lynn  forever  behind  her  and  went  to  Boston. "l 

8.  LIFE  IN  BOSTON 

Boston!  the  "hub  of  the  universe,"  the  "literary  Athens 
of  America,"  redolent  of  memories  of  Emerson  and  Lowell 

1  Milmine,  History,  p.  279. 


48  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

and  Holmes;  the  seat  of  Harvard  University;  the  luminary 
that  has  emitted  the  cold,  white  light  of  Unitarianism  and 
liberal  thought ;  distinguished  from  colonial  days  by  eminent 
scholars  and  divines  and  statesmen  and  literary  geniuses; 
Boston  with  all  its  literary  and  social  exclusiveness  and 
superiority  and  pride;  that  this  city  set  on  a  hill  should 
become  the  home  and  throne  of  Christian  Science  is  surely 
the  paradox  and  irony  of  history.  How  are  the  mighty 
fallen!  If  the  light  that  is  in  Boston  turn  to  darkness, 
how  great  is  that  darkness! 

The  home  and  throne  of  Christian  Science  is  what 
Boston  became  when  Mary  Baker  Eddy,  at  the  age  of 
sixty-one  years,  set  foot  in  its  precincts  and  located  her 
establishment  on  Columbus  Avenue,  afterwards  trans- 
ferring it  to  the  fashionable  Commonwealth  Avenue. 
On  Columbus  Avenue  she  set  up  her  "Massachusetts 
Metaphysical  College,"  of  which  she  herself  was  the 
entire  faculty  and  in  which  she  charged  three  hundred 
dollars  for  a  course  of  seven  lessons.  Half  a  dozen  of 
her  students  made  their  home  with  her,  and  the  business 
of  teaching  on  her  part  and  of  practicing  on  their  part 
began  in  this  city. 

In  June  of  the  same  year  the  death  of  Dr.  Eddy  oc- 
curred, for  death,  which  according  to  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her 
"Science'*  is  only  a  "false  belief"  and  "delusion"  and 
"myth"  and  "nothing,"  has  never  spared  the  followers 
of  Mrs.  Eddy,  not  even  her  own  husbands.  Mrs.  Eddy 
had  an  autopsy  performed  by  a  regular  physician,  who 
pronounced  the  cause  of  death  to  be  organic  disease  of 
the  heart.  "Dr.  Rufus  K.  Noyes  of  Boston,"  says 
Mr.  Peabody,  "who  performed  the  autopsy,  tells  me  that, 
having   removed   the    diseased    organ  from  Mr.   Eddy's 


LIFE  OF  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  49 

breast,  he  exhibited  it  upon  a  platter  to  the  sorrowing 
widow,  who  craved  the  ocular  demonstration,  and  pointed 
out  to  her  curious  and  eager  inspection  the  precise  cause 
of  death  in  its  diseased  condition.  And  it  was  after, 
and  notwithstanding,  her  close  scrutiny  of  the  physical 
heart  that  had  so  robustly  throbbed  with  love  for  her, 
that,  much  to  Dr.  Noyes'  amusement,  Mrs.  Eddy  gave 
out  the  statement,  to  the  extent  of  a  column  or  more  in 
the  newspapers,  that  arsenical  poison  mentally  admin- 
istered by  absent  treatment  had  in  fact  torn  her  loved 
one  a  third  time,  and  finally,  from  her  clinging  grasp." ^ 
The  following  are  several  extracts  from  this  interview 
which  appeared  in  the  Boston  Post,  June  5,  1882,  the 
"Dr.  Eastman"  mentioned  in  it  being  one  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
students  and  not  a  graduate  of  any  regular  medical  school: 


My  husband's  death  was  caused  by  malicious  mesmerism.  Dr. 
C.  J.  Eastman,  who  attended  the  case  after  it  had  taken  an  alarming 
turn,  declares  the  symptoms  to  be  the  same  as  those  of  arsenical 
poisoning.  On  the  other  hand.  Dr.  Rufus  K.  Noyes,  late  of  the 
City  Hospital,  who  held  an  autopsy  over  the  body  to-day,  affirms 
that  the  corpse  is  free  from  all  material  poisons,  although  Dr.  East- 
man still  holds  to  his  original  belief.  I  know  it  was  poison  that 
killed  him,  not  material  poison,  but  mesmeric  poison.  My  husband 
was  in  uniform  health,  and  but  seldom  complained  of  any  kind  of 
ailment.  During  his  brief  illness,  just  preceding  his  death,  his 
continual  cry  was,  "Only  relieve  me  of  this  continual  suggestion, 
through  the  mind,  of  poison,  and  I  will  recover."  It  is  well  known 
that  by  constantly  dwelling  upon  any  subject  in  thought  finally 
comes  the  poison  of  belief  through  the  whole  system.  .  Oh,  isn't 
it  terrible,  that  this  fiend  of  malpractice  is  in  the  land!  The  only 
remedy  that  is  effective  in  meeting  this  terrible  power  possessed  by 
the  evil-minded  is  to  counteract  it  by  the  same  method  that  I  use  in 
counteracting  poison.  They  require  the  same  remedy.  Circum- 
stances debarred  me  from  taking  hold  of  my  husband's  case.  He 
declared  himself  perfectly  capable  of  carrying  himself  through,  and 
I  was  so  entirely  absorbed  in  business  that  I  permitted  him  to  try, 

1  Masquerade,  p.  44. 


50  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

and  when  I  awakened  to  the  danger  it  was  too  late.  .  .  We  all 
know  that  disease  of  any  kind  cannot  reach  the  body  except  through 
the  mind,  and  that  if  the  mind  is  cured  the  disease  is  soon  relieved. 
Only  a  few  days  ago  I  disposed  of  a  tumor  in  twenty-four  hours 
that  the  doctors  had  said  must  be  removed  by  the  knife.  I  changed 
the  course  of  the  mind  to  counteract  the  effect  of  the  disease.  This 
proves  the  myth  of  matter. ^ 


It  was  really  unfortunate  for  the  poor  husband  that 
a  wife  with  such  power  was  *'so  entirely  absorbed  in 
business'*  that  ''circumstances  debarred  [her]  from  taking 
hold  of  [his]  case." 

Soon  after  Mr.  Eddy's  death  Mrs.  Eddy  called  into 
her  service  Calvin  A.  Frye,  who  ever  after  played  a  large 
and  intimate  part  in  her  life  until  her  death.  He  was  a 
striking  exception  among  her  many  students  and  followers 
in  that  she  did  not  quarrel  with  him  and  dismiss  him 
peremptorily  under  a  charge  of  "Malicious  Mesmerism" 
or  "Malpractice."  He  was  a  machinist  employed  at 
Lawrence,  Mass.,  when  at  the  age  of  twenty-seven  he 
was  summoned  to  come  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  from  whom  he 
had  formerly  received  instruction.  Writing  in  1908, 
Miss  Milmine  gives  the  following  summary  account  of  him : 


For  twenty-seven  years  Mr.  Frye  has  occupied  an  anomalous 
position  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  household.  He  has  been  her  house  steward, 
bookkeeper,  and  secretary.  When  he  attends  her  upon  her  cere- 
monial drives  in  Concord,  he  wears  the  livery  of  a  footman.  In  a 
letter  to  her  son,  George  Glover,  written  April  27,  1898,  Mrs.  Eddy 
describes  Mr.  Frye  as  her  "man-of-all-work."  Since  Mrs.  Eddy's 
retirement  [1889]  to  Concord  eighteen  years  ago,  Calvin  Frye  has 
lived  in  an  isolation  almost  as  complete  as  her  own,  the  object  of 
surmises  and  insinuations.  He  has  no  personal  friends  outside  of 
the  walls  of  Pleasant  View,  and  the  oft-repeated  assertion  that  in 
twenty-seven  years  he  has  not  been  beyond  Mrs.  Eddy's  call  for 
twenty-four  hours  is  perhaps  literally  true.     Although  her  treatment 

1  Milmine,  History,  pp.  286,  287. 


LIFE  OF  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  51 

of  liim  has  often  been  contemptuous  in  the  extreme,  his  fidelity  has 
been  invaluable  to  Mrs.  Eddy;  but  the  actual  donning  of  livery  by 
a  middle-aged  man  of  some  education  and  of  sturdy,  independent 
New  England  ancestry,  is  a  difficult  thing  to  understand.  Whether 
he  feels  the  grave  charges  which  have  recently  been  brought  against 
him,  or  the  ridicule  of  which  he  has  long  been  the  object,  it  is  not 
likely  that  anyone  will  ever  learn  from  Mr.  Frye.^ 

Mr.  Peabody  offers  like  testimony  as  to  the  strange 
relations  of  this  man  and  woman.  *'He  is,"  he  says,  *'her 
major-domo,  master  of  ceremonies  in  her  pretentious 
establishment,  and  director  of  her  large  retinue  of  assistant 
secretaries,  literary  experts,  personal  healers,  mental 
protectors,  and  domestic  servants.  These  positions  Mr. 
Frye  has  adorned,  as  a  resident  member  of  Mrs,  Eddy's 
family,  occupying  an  adjoining  room,  for  upwards  of 
thirty  years."  For  years  he  held  the  legal  title  of  all  her 
property  down  to  the  very  jewels  she  wore,  and  this  con- 
dition continued  until  Mr.  Peabody,  who  was  associate 
counsel  in  a  legal  case  in  connection  with  Mrs.  Eddy's 
property,  called  attention  to  it  and  Mr.  Frye  reconveyed 
it  to  Mrs.  Eddy.  In  view  "of  all  these  circumstances, 
taken  with  the  confident  opinion  of  one  long  a  member  of 
her  household,"  Mr.  Peabody,  speaking  with  an  inside 
knowledge  of  the  facts,  expresses  his  judgment  of  the 
relations  of  these  two  people,  which  anyone  interested  in 
knowing  it  can  find  recorded  in  his  book.  2 

The  seven  years  that  Mrs.  Eddy  spent  in  Boston  at  the 
head  of  her  complex  and  growing  establishment,  con- 
sisting of  her  household.  Metaphysical  College  and  church, 
were  marked  by  the  usual  personal  quarrels,  church  dis- 
sensions, lawsuits,  and  mesmeric  monomania.     The  devil 

1  History,  pp.  293,  294. 

2  Masquerade,  pp.  45,  46. 


52  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

of  "M.  A.  M."  was  very  busy  in  Boston  and  let  no  day 
pass  without  some  visible  mark  of  his  presence  and  dis- 
pleasure. One  who  spent  several  years  in  her  Boston 
household  declares  it  was  *'a  madhouse."  Miss  Milmine 
gives  the  following  glimpse  into  it : 

The  atmosphere  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  house  derived  its  peculiar  char- 
acter from  her  belief  in  malicious  mesmerism,  which  exerted  a 
sinister  influence  over  everyone  under  her  roof.  Her  students  could 
never  get  away  from  it.  Morning,  noon,  and  night  the  thing  had 
to  be  reckoned  with,  and  the  very  domestic  arrangements  were 
ordered  to  elude  or  to  combat  the  demoniacal  power.  If  Mrs.  Eddy 
had  kept  in  her  house  a  dangerous  maniac  or  some  horrible  physical 
monstrosity  which  was  always  breaking  from  confinement  and 
stealing  around  her  chambers  and  hallways,  it  could  scarcely  have 
cast  a  more  depressing  anxiety  over  her  household.  Those  of  her 
students  who  believed  in  mesmerism  were  always  on  their  guard 
with  each  other,  filled  with  suspicion  and  distrust.  If  a  member 
of  that  household  denied  the  doctrine,  or  even  showed  a  lack  of 
interest  in  it,  he  was  at  once  pronounced  a  mesmerist  and  requested 
to  leave.  Mr.  Eddy's  death  had  given  malicious  animal  magnetism 
a  new  vogue.  Mrs.  Eddy  was  now  always  discovering  in  herself 
and  her  students  symptoms  of  arsenical  poisons  or  of  other  baneful 
drugs.  Her  nocturnal  illnesses,  which  she  had  for  years  attributed 
to  malicious  mesmerism,  were  now  more  frequent  and  violent  than 
ever.i 

In  1888,  Mrs.  Eddy  at  the  age  of  sixty-eight  adopted  as 
her  legal  son  Ebenezer  Johnson  Foster,  a  man  of  forty- 
one,  who  then  became  known  as  Ebenezer  J.  Foster  Eddy. 
He  was  a  homeopathic  physician  and  Mrs.  Eddy  was 
glad  to  have  a  medically  trained  man  in  her  service  so 
that  on  occasion  she  could  use  him  for  her  own  purposes. 
Dr.  Foster  Eddy  served  her  well  for  a  time  and  became 
publisher  of  her  books,  but  in  time  he  was  charged  with 
being  short  in  his  accounts  and  with  having  conducted 
himself  improperly  with   a  married  woman,   and  Mrs. 

1  History,  p.  301. 


LIFE  OF  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  53 

Eddy  then  sent  him  to  Philadelphia  to  build  up  a  church. 
When  it  was  found  that  discreditable  stories  had  followed 
him  to  that  city  Mrs.  Eddy  wrote  to  him:  *'Dear  Doctor, 
I  have  silenced  every  word  of  the  slander  started  in  Boston 
about  that  woman  by  saying  that  I  had  not  the  least 
idea  of  any  wrong  conduct  between  you  and  her,  for  I 
know  you  are  chaste.  .  .  This  silly  stuff  is  dead.  Always 
kindly  yours,  Mary  Baker  Eddy."  Dr.  Foster  Eddy  left 
Philadelphia,  but  he  was  already  under  suspicion  with 
Mrs.  Eddy,  and  soon  after  when  he  sought  to  see  her,  she 
"cut  short  the  interview  and  went  upstairs  while  he  was 
speaking,"  and  he  drops  out  of  this  history. 

Mrs.  Eddy  was  having  almost  constant  trouble  with 
her  publishers  and  editors  whom  she  appointed  and  dis- 
missed at  her  own  arbitrary  pleasure.  In  one  letter  she 
reprimanded  W.  G.  Nixon,  her  publisher,  for  not  afl&xing 
her  name  whenever  he  mentioned  "Science  and  Health" 
in  the  Christian  Science  Journal,  and  in  another  letter 
reproof  fell  on  his  unlucky  head  for  having  omitted  the 
title  "Reverend"  before  her  name.  Mr.  Nixon  thought 
that  the  Journal  should  not  be  conducted  simply  as  the 
personal  organ  of  Mrs.  Eddy  and  ventured  to  suggest  to 
her  that  it  would  be  more  dignified  to  keep  her  name  a 
little  more  in  the  background,  but  this  drew  from  her  the 
following  note: 

Those  who  are  trying  to  frighten  you  over  my  name  at  suitable 
intervals  and  who  are  crying  personality  are  the  very  ones  that 
persist  in  their  purpose  to  keep  my  personality  before  the  public 
through  abusing  it  and  to  harness  it  to  all  the  faults  of  other  per- 
sonalities and  make  it  responsible  for  them.  But  neither  of  these 
efforts  disposes  of  personality  nor  handle  it  on  the  rule  our  Master 
taught  nor  deal  with  mortal  personality  scientifically. 

On  Sept.  30,  1889,  Mrs.  Eddy  wrote  to  Mr.  Nixon, 


54  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

saying:  "God  our  God  has  just  told  me  who  to  recommend 
to  you  for  the  Editor  of  C.  S.  Jour,  but  you  are  not  to 
name  me  in  this  transaction.  It  is  Rev.  Charles  Ma- 
comber  Smith,  D.  D.,  164  Summer  St.,  Somerville,  Mass. 
.  .  .  Get  him  sure."  But  before  Mr.  Nixon  could  act 
on  this  letter  she  wrote  him  again,  saying,  *'I  regret 
having  named  the  one  I  did  for  Editor.  It  is  a  mistake, 
he  is  not  fit.  It  was  not  God  evidently  that  suggested 
that  thought  but  the  person  who  suggests  many  things 
mentally  but  I  have  before  been  able  to  discriminate  I 
wrote  too  soon  after  it  came  to  my  thought."  It  thus 
appears  that  she  was  not  always  able  to  discriminate 
between  God's  revelation  and  the  suggestion  of  her  mes- 
meric devil  *'M.  A.  M."  In  these  disputes  Mrs.  Eddy 
always  had  one  argument  that  was  unanswerable.  Look- 
ing her  opponent  directly  in  the  eye  she  would  slowly  say, 
"God  has  directed  me  in  this  matter.  Have  you  any- 
thing further  to  say?" 

In  the  spring  of  1889  Mrs.  Eddy  suddenly  left  Boston, 
driven  out  as  she  said  by  malicious  mesmerism.  This 
evil  presence  had  filled  and  poisoned  the  whole  city.  Her 
mail,  her  clothes,  her  house  were  saturated  with  it.  The 
very  atmosphere  had  become  so  impregnated  with  it  that 
she  said  it  choked  her.  The  only  relief  for  her  was 
"flight,"  escape  anywhere  to  get  away  from  Boston.  The 
city  of  culture  that  had  once  attracted  her  now  repelled 
her  and  sent  her  flying  from  it  as  for  her  very  life. 

9.  RETIREMENT  AND  CLOSING  YEARS 

From  Boston  Mrs.  Eddy  went  to  Concord,  N.  H., 
where  she  lived  in  a  beautiful  home  with  surrounding 


LIFE  OF  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  55 

grounds  known  as  Pleasant  View,  from  which  she  could 
look  out  over  the  hills  among  which  lies  the  farm  where 
she  spent  her  childhood.  In  this  retirement  she  lived 
nineteen  years,  but  though  withdrawn  from  public  life 
she  yet  kept  her  hand  on  her  church  and  all  her  affairs 
and  even  tightened  her  autocratic  grip.  Only  four  times 
during  these  years  did  she  visit  Boston.  She  ceased  to 
teach  and  preach  as  long  before  she  had  ceased  to  give 
treatment  to  the  sick;  and  she  published  a  notice  that  no 
one  must  seek  to  consult  her  or  write  to  her.  Her  followers 
would  go  out  from  Boston  on  pilgrimages  to  Pleasant 
View,  where  for  a  number  of  years  she  appeared  to  them 
on  the  occasion  of  the  June  communion.  But  she  with- 
drew into  ever  closer  seclusion  and  even  published  a 
prohibition  forbidding  her  followers  to  linger  on  the  road 
so  as  to  see  her  as  she  went  by  in  her  carriage.  Her  life 
grew  increasingly  isolated  and  lonely,  and  writing  to  her 
son  George  Washington  Glover  in  1898  she  said:  *'Now 
what  of  my  circumstances  .^^  I  name  first  my  home,  which 
of  all  places  on  earth  is  the  one  in  which  to  find  peace  and 
enjoyment.  But  my  home  is  simply  a  house  and  a 
beautiful  landscape.  There  is  not  one  in  it  that  I  love 
as  I  love  everybody.  I  have  no  congeniality  with  my 
help  inside  of  my  house;  there  are  no  companions  and 
scarcely  fit  to  be  my  help." 

She  was  so  closely  guarded  that  her  son  came  to  believe 
that  his  letters  were  not  reaching  her  and  that  Calvin 
Frye  answered  some  of  them.  When  he  sent  a  letter  to 
her  by  express  he  was  notified  that  Mrs  Eddy  could  not 
receive  it  except  through  her  secretary  Frye.  Mr.  Glover 
then  brought  action  against  ten  leading  Christian  Scien- 
tists, as  we  have  already  related,  when  Mrs   Eddy  trans- 


56         THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

ferred  her  property  to  a  trusteeship,  and  then  the  action 
was  withdrawn. 

On  Sunday,  January  26,  1908,  Mrs.  Eddy  was  taken 
on  board  a  special  train  at  Concord  and  removed  to 
Newton,  Mass.,  where  a  fine  mansion  had  been  bought 
and  prepared  for  her.  This  removal  was  effected  with 
great  secrecy  and  precaution  and  was  an  utter  surprise  to 
her  followers  and  the  public.  The  reason  for  this  final 
change  of  residence  is  given  by  Miss  Milmine  as  follows : 

It  is  very  probable  that  Mrs.  Eddy  left  Concord  for  the  same 
reason  that  she  left  Boston  years  ago;  because  she  felt  that  malicious 
animal  magnetism  was  becoming  too  strong  for  her  there.  The 
action  brought  by  her  son  in  Concord  the  previous  summer  she 
attributed  entirely  to  the  work  of  mesmerists  who  were  supposed 
to  control  her  son's  mind.  Mrs.  Eddy  always  believed  that  this 
strange  miasma  of  evil  had  a  curious  tendency  to  become  localized; 
that  certain  streets,  mailboxes,  telegraph  ofl5ces,  vehicles,  could  be 
totally  suborned  by  these  invisible  currents  of  hatred  and  ill-will  that 
had  their  source  in  the  minds  of  her  enemies  and  continually  en- 
circled her.  She  believed  that  in  this  way  an  entire  neighborhood 
could  be  made  inimical  to  her,  and  it  is  quite  possible  that,  after  the 
recent  litigation  in  Concord,  she  felt  that  the  place  had  become 
saturated  with  mesmerism  and  that  she  would  never  again  find 
peace  there.  ^ 

Mrs.  Eddy  was  now  eighty-seven  years  of  age,  and  her 
highly  nervous  organization  that  had  withstood  the  strain 
and  storms  of  so  many  years  was  visibly  approaching  the 
end.  Yet  she  still  showed  wonderful  vitality  and  grip  on 
her  affairs  and  at  times  the  old  fire  would  flash  up  in  the 
dying  embers.  Her  death  occurred  on  December  3,  1910. 
A  physician  was  called  in  near  the  end,  and  her  attendants 
said  that  for  several  days  she  had  been  *'in  error."  She 
was  buried  at  Newton,  where  a  costly  monument  has  been 

1  History,  p.  459. 


LIFE  OF  MRS.  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY  57 

reared  over  her  grave.  But  her  real  monument  is  the 
strange  system  of  belief  and  practice  she  built  up  and  the 
strange  book  she  wrote  and  the  church  that  acknowledges 
her  as  its  founder.  Whatever  view  may  be  taken  of  her 
character  and  teaching  and  work,  it  must  be  admitted 
that  she  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  women  of  her 
day. 


CHAPTER  IV 
WHERE  DID  MRS.  EDDY  GET  HER  SYSTEM  OF  HEALING? 

This  is  a  vital  question  in  the  story  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  life 
and  the  history  of  Christian  Science.  If  the  system  is 
based  on  a  false  claim  of  originality  and  has  purloined  its 
ideas  from  another  healer,  it  falls  into  the  class  of  stolen 
goods.  It  is  true  that  the  essential  truth  and  worth  of 
the  ideas  of  a  system  may  be  independent  of  their  origin 
and  authorship,  but  a  religion  founded  by  a  false  prophet 
cannot  retain  the  respect  of  the  world,  and  will  not 
endure. 

1.  MRS.  EDDY'S  CLAIMS 

Mrs.  Eddy  makes  very  positive  claims  as  to  her  own 
discovery  of  Christian  Science,  but  as  usual  she  is  at  this 
point  her  own  most  confusing  and  contradictory  witness 
against  herself.  At  different  times  she  fixes  on  different 
dates  for  this  discovery;  and  while  the  development  of  an 
idea  may  pass  through  degrees  of  growth,  yet  her  definite 
dates  do  not  carry  this  implication,  especially  as  she  says 
in  one  of  her  letters,  'T  discovered  the  art  in  a  moment's 
time."  In  a  letter  to  the  Boston  Post  of  March  7,  1883, 
she  says:  "We  made  our  first  experiments  in  mental 
healing  about  1853,  when  we  were  convinced  that  mind 
had  a  science,  which,  if  understood,  would  heal  all  disease." 
But  in  the  first  edition  of  ^'Science  and  Health,"  1875,  she 
says:  "We  made  our  first  discovery  that  science  mentally 

58 


WHERE  DID  SHE  GET  HER  SYSTEM  OF  HEALING    59 

applied  would  heal  the  sick,  in  1864,  and  since  then 
have  tested  it  on  ourselves  and  hundreds  of  others  and 
never  found  it  fail  to  prove  the  statement  herein  made 
for  it." 

In  later  editions  of  "Science  and  Health,"  she  fixes  on 
1866  as  the  date  of  the  discovery,  and  this  is  the  date 
given  in  a  more  elaborate  account  in  her  autobiography 
"Retrospection  and  Introspection"  (1892),  which  is  as 
follows: 


It  was  in  Massachusetts,  February,  1866,  and  after  the  death  of 
the  magnetic  doctor,  Mr.  P.  P.  Quimby,  whom  spiritualists  would 
associate  therewith,  but  who  was  in  no  wise  connected  with  this 
event,  that  I  discovered  the  science  of  Divine  Metaphysical  healing, 
which  I  afterward  named  Christian  Science.  The  discovery  came 
to  pass  in  this  way.  During  twenty  years  prior  to  my  discovery  I 
had  been  trying  to  trace  all  physical  effects  to  a  mental  cause;  and 
in  the  latter  part  of  1866  I  gained  the  scientific  certainty  that  all 
causation  was  Mind,  and  every  effect  a  mental  phenomenon.  My 
immediate  recovery  from  the  effects  of  an  injury  caused  by  an 
accident,  an  injury  neither  medicine  nor  surgery  could  reach,  was 
the  falling  apple  that  led  me  to  the  discovery  how  to  be  well  myself 
and  how  to  make  others  so.  Even  to  the  homeopathic  physician 
who  attended  me,  and  rejoiced  in  my  recovery,  I  could  not  then 
explain  the  modus  of  my  relief.  I  could  only  assure  him  that  the 
Divine  Spirit  had  wrought  the  miracle,  a  miracle  which  later  I 
found  to  be  in  perfect  Scientific  accord  with  divine  law.i 


She  refers  to  this  recovery  in  the  first  edition  of  "Science 
and  Health"  and  also  in  a  letter  written  to  Mr.  W.  W. 
Wright,  in  which  she  says:  "I  have  demonstrated  upon 
myself  in  an  injury  occasioned  by  a  fall,  that  it  did  for 
me  what  surgeons  could  not  do.  Dr.  Gushing  of  this  city 
pronounced  my  injury  incurable  and  that  I  could  not 
survive  three  days  because  of  it,  when  on  the  third  day  I 
rose  from  my  bed  and  to  the  utter  confusion  of  all  I 

1  Retrospection  and  Introspection,  p.  24. 


60  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

commenced  my  usual  avocations  and  notwithstanding 
misplacements,  I  regained  the  natural  position  and 
functions  of  the  body." 

But  two  weeks  after  this  miraculous  recovery,  which 
she  says  occurred  on  the  third  day  after  her  accident, 
Mrs.  Eddy  wrote  to  Julius  A.  Dresser,  a  former  student 
of  Quimby,  as  follows: 


Two  weeks  ago  I  fell  on  the  sidewalk,  and  struck  my  back  on  the 
ice,  and  was  taken  up  for  dead,  came  to  consciousness  amid  a  storm 
of  vapors  from  cologne,  chloroform,  ether,  camphor,  etc.,  but  to 
find  myself  the  helpless  cripple  I  was  before  I  saw  Dr.  Quimby. 
The  physician  attending  said  I  had  taken  the  last  step  I  ever  should, 
but  in  two  days  I  got  out  of  my  bed  alone  and  will  walk;  but  yet 
I  confess  I  am  frightened,  and  out  of  that  nervous  heat  my  friends 
are  forming,  spite  of  me,  the  terrible  spinal  affection  from  which  I 
have  suffered  so  long  and  hopelessly.  .  .  Now  can't  you  help  me? 
I  believe  you  can.  I  write  with  this  feeling:  I  think  that  I  could 
help  another  in  my  condition  if  they  had  not  placed  their  intelligence 
in  matter.  This  I  have  not  done,  and  yet  I  am  slowly  failing. 
Won't  you  write  to  me  if  you  will  undertake  for  me  if  I  can  get  you? 


And  Dr.  Gushing,  the  physician  in  the  case,  in  1907 
made  a  long  aflfidavit,  based  on  notes  of  the  case  written 
at  the  time,  giving  an  account  of  it  in  which  he  said: 


I  did  not  at  any  time  declare,  or  believe,  that  there  was  no  hope 
for  Mrs.  Patterson's  recovery,  or  that  she  was  in  a  critical  condition, 
and  did  not  at  any  time  say,  or  believe,  that  she  had  but  three  or 
any  other  limited  number  of  days  to  live.  Mrs.  Patterson  did  not 
suggest,  or  say,  or  pretend,  or  in  any  way  whatever  intimate,  that 
on  the  third,  or  any  other  day,  of  her  said  illness,  she  had  miracu- 
lously recovered  or  been  healed,  or  that,  discovering  or  perceiving 
the  truth  of  the  power  employed  by  Christ  to  heal  the  sick,  she  had, 
by  it,  been  restored  to  health.  As  I  have  stated,  on  the  third  and 
subsequent  days  of  her  said  illness,  resulting  from  her  said  fall  on 
the  ice,  I  attended  Mrs.  Patterson  and  gave  her  medicine;  and  on 
the  10th  day  of  the  following  August,  I  was  again  called  to  see  her, 
this  time  at  the  home  of  a  Mrs.  Clark,  on  Summer  Street,  in  said 
city  of  Lynn. 


WHERE  DID  SHE  GET  HER  SYSTEM  OF  HEALING    61 

As  Dr.  Gushing  attended  Mrs.  Eddy  on  tte  third  day 
after  her  fall,  when  she  says  she  experienced  an  "immediate 
recovery"  which  astonished  her  physician,  an  alleged  fact 
which  he  utterly  denies,  and  also  attended  her  for  at 
least  two  days  subsequent  to  this  third  day,  and  as  she 
herself  wrote  two  weeks  later  to  Julius  A.  Dresser  that 
she  was  "slowly  failing"  and  made  a  frantic  appeal  to 
him  to  help  her,  her  claim  to  have  discovered  Christian 
Science  in  1866  in  connection  with  a  miraculous  recovery 
from  a  fall  is  discredited  and  disproved  by  her  physician 
and  especially  by  her  own  subsequent  testimony. 

2.  PHINEAS  PARKHURST  QUIMBY 

Phineas  Parkhurst  Quimby,  as  has  been  seen,  was  an 
uneducated  clock  maker  of  Portland,  Me.,  who  practiced 
mental  healing.  He  was  born  in  Lebanon,  N.  H.,  in 
1802  and  died  at  Belfast,  Me.,  in  1866.  He  was  a  man  of 
Christian  faith  and  fine  character  and  sterling  worth, 
whose  simple  goodness  and  kindliness  won  the  instinctive 
confidence  of  all  who  came  into  contact  with  him,  and 
this  faith  in  himself  which  he  inspired  was,  no  doubt,  the 
chief  secret  of  his  healing  power.  While  uneducated,  he 
was  yet  not  an  ignorant  man,  but  was  a  constant  reader 
of  the  Bible  and  even  read  some  philosophical  books. 
About  1838  he  became  interested  in  the  power  of  the  mind 
as  exhibited  in  mesmerism,  clairvoyance,  and  Scriptural 
healing  by  laying  on  of  hands.  Charles  Poyen,  the 
French  mesmerist  who  has  been  mentioned  before,  was 
then  traveling  around  and  lecturing  in  New  England,  and 
Mr.  Quimby  heard  him  and  was  influenced  by  him.  He 
practiced  his  method  of  healing  for  a  time,   but  soon 


62  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

abandoned  it  and  began  to  heal  diseases  by  the  silent 
treatment,  declaring  *'Truth"  to  be  the  healer.  Though 
he  said  that  "error  is  matter,"  yet  he  did  not  mean  to  deny 
the  reality  of  matter  and  was  little  interested  in  meta- 
physics. "His  explanations  were  concrete,  and  he  saw 
no  reason  for  denying  natural  facts. "i  He  ceased  to 
practice  mesmerism  or  hypnotism  because  he  discovered 
that  *'any  person  or  drug  which  could  put  the  patient  in 
this  attitude  of  mental  receptivity  and  give  his  own  mind 
a  chance  to  work  upon  the  disease,  would  accomplish  the 
same  result."  He  then  gave  up  manipulating  his  patients 
and  declared  the  cure  was  purely  mental.  Finally  he  lost 
all  faith  in  the  science  of  medicine  and  thought  that 
doctors  were  hypocrites.  "Instead  of  gaining  confidence 
in  the  doctors,  I  was  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  their 
science  was  false.  .  .  .  My  theory  exposes  the  hypocrisy 
of  those  who  undertake  to  cure  in  this  way."^  Mr. 
Quimby  was  a  simple-minded  man  who  found  no  difficulty 
in  thinking  that  all  his  own  opinions  were  infallible 
knowledge  and  that  all  other  men's  opinions  were  false. 

In  one  of  his  circulars  he  described  his  method  as 
follows : 

My  practice  is  unlike  all  medical  practice.  .  .  I  give  no  medicines 
and  make  no  outward  applications,  but  simply  sit  by  the  patient, 
tell  liim  what  he  thinks  is  his  disease,  and  my  explanation  is  the 
cure.  .  .  If  I  succeed  in  correcting  his  errors,  I  change  the  fluids 
of  his  system,  and  establish  the  truth  or  health.  The  truth  is  the 
cure.     This  mode  of  treatment  applies  to  all  cases.  3 

1  Horatio  W.  Dresser,  History  of  the  Neic  Thovght  Movement,  p. 
120. 

2  Julius  A.  Dresser,  True  History  of  Mental  Healing,  p.  17. 

3  For  extensive  quotations  from  Mr.  Quimby's  manuscripts  see 
the  True  History  of  Mental  Healing,  by  Julius  A.  Dresser  who  was  a 


WHERE  DID  SHE  GET  HER  SYSTEM  OF  HEALING     63 

Mr.  Quimby  divided  man  into  two  parts  or  elements, 
"the  spiritual  power  in  man,"  and  "the  natural  man,"  or 
"animal  matter  or  life."  He  uses  the  word  "matter"  for 
the  lower  nature  of  the  senses  and  also  appears  to  mean 
by  it  very  much  the  same  as  we  mean  by  the  "subcon- 
sciousness," but  he  never  employs  it  in  Mrs.  Eddy's 
sense  of  "nothingness,"  and  of  a  delusion  of  "mortal 
mind,"  a  term  he  does  not  use.  "My  theory,"  he  says, 
"is  founded  on  the  fact  that  mind  is  matter;  and,  if  you 
will  admit  this  for  the  sake  of  listening  to  my  ideas,  I 
will  give  you  my  theory.  .  .  All  knowledge  that  is  of 
man  is  based  on  opinions.  This  I  call  this  world  of 
[spiritual]  matter.  It  embraces  all  that  comes  within  the 
so-called  senses.  Man's  happiness  and  misery  are  in  his 
belief;  but  the  wisdom  of  science  is  of  God,  and  not  of  man. 
Now  to  separate  these  two  kingdoms  is  what  I  am  trying 
to  do.  .  .  Disease  is  the  invention  of  man,  and  has  no 
identity  in  Wisdom."  Disease  is  thus  a  wrong  belief 
rooted  down  in  the  subconscious  life  of  man,  and  it  is 
cured  by  Truth  or  Wisdom  which  is  the  power  of  God 
working  in  the  soul.i  Xhis  is  Quimby 's  root  idea  which 
Mrs.  Eddy  appropriated,  only  she  added  to  it  the  idea  of 
the  non reality  of  matter,  which  he  never  held,  as  well  as 
many  other  absurd  notions. 


patient  of  Mr.  Quimby  and  then  a  teacher  of  his  methods,  and 
who  says,  "All  these  writings  I  have  read,  being  in  the  confidence 
of  George  A.  Quimby,  the  son,  who  holds  them."  His  book,  based 
on  personal  intimate  knowledge  of  the  facts,  gives  convincing  testi- 
mony as  to  the  way  in  which  Mrs.  Eddy  appropriated  Mr.  Quimby's 
principle  and  methods. 

1  For  an  exposition  of  Mr.  Quimby's  theory,  see  H.  W.  Dresser's 
History  of  the  New  Thought  Movement,  ch.  II  and  III. 


64  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

S.  REV.  WARREN  F.  EVANS.  FIRST  EXPOSITOR  OF  QUIMBY 

Dr.  Quimby  soon  began  to  attract  not  only  patients 
but  also  students  and  followers  who  took  up  his  system 
and  began  to  teach  and  practice  it  for  themselves.  Among 
these  was  the  Rev.  Warren  F.  Evans,  a  Swedenborgian 
minister  of  Claremont,  N.  H.,  who  came  to  Dr.  Quimby 
in  poor  health  in  1863  and  was  healed.  He  was  acquainted 
with  philosophical  idealism  and  was  able  to  grasp  Dr. 
Quimby's  ideas  and  work  them  out  for  himself.  As  a 
result  of  his  study  and  experience  he  became  the  first 
expositor  of  Dr.  Quimby's  theory,  which  he  set  forth  in 
six  volumes,  the  first  three  of  which,  with  their  titles  and 
dates  of  publication,  were  the  following:  *'The  Mental 
Cure,"  1869;  "Mental  Medicine,"  1872;  and  **Soul  and 
Body,"  1875.  It  will  be  noted  that  these  three  books 
appeared  before  the  first  edition  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  * 'Science 
and  Health."  A  quotation  from  the  second  of  these 
volumes,  "Mental  Medicine,"  will  indicate  Mr.  Evans' 
general  teaching: 

Disease  being  in  its  root  a  wrong  belief,  change  that  belief  and 
we  cure  the  disease.  By  faith  we  are  thus  made  whole.  There  is  a 
law  here  the  world  will  sometime  understand  and  use  in  the  cure  of 
the  diseases  that  aflBict  mankind.  The  late  Dr.  Quimby,  one  of  the 
successful  healers  of  this  or  any  age,  embraced  this  view  of  the 
nature  of  disease,  and  by  a  long  succession  of  most  remarkable 
cures  proved  the  truth  of  the  theory  and  the  efficiency  of  that 
mode  of  treatment.  Had  he  lived  in  a  remote  age  or  country,  the 
wonderful  facts  which  occurred  in  his  practice  would  have  been 
deemed  either  mythical  or  miraculous.  He  seemed  to  reproduce 
the  wonders  of  the  Gospel  history.^ 

It  will  be  seen  that  Mr.  Evans  not  only  reproduces 
Dr.  Quimby's  fundamental  teaching  but  also  expressly 

1  For  account  of  Rev.  W.  F.  Evans  and  his  teaching,  see  Dresser's 
History  of  the  New  Thought  Movement,  ch.  IV. 


WHERE  DID  SHE  GET  HER  SYSTEM  OF  HEALING     65 

attributes  it  to  him,  in  which  respect  he  stands  in  wide 
contrast  with  Mrs.  Eddy.  It  is  an  important  fact  in 
this  history  that  Mrs.  Eddy  had  some  knowledge  of  Dr. 
Evans'  books,  for  *'as  a  direct  rebuke  to  those  who  had 
become  interested  in  the  writings  of  Dr.  Evans,  she  issued 
instructions  to  the  members  of  the  Christian  Scientists' 
Association  that  they  should  read  no  other  works  upon 
mental  healing  than  those  written  by  herself,  and  she 
printed  in  the  Journal  a  set  of  rules  to  the  effect  that  all 
teachers  of  Christian  Science  should  require  that  their 
students  read  no  literature  upon  the  subject  of  mind 
cure  but  her  own." 2 

4.  MRS.  EDDY'S  RELATIONS  WITH  DR.  QUIMBY 

Mrs.  Eddy,  then  Mrs.  Patterson,  was  wandering 
around  with  her  peripatetic  dental  husband  and  was 
trying  various  means  of  cure  for  her  ill  health,  when  she 
heard  of  Dr.  Quimby  and  went  to  him  in  Portland  in 
1862.  She  was  so  weak  on  her  arrival  that  she  had  to 
be  helped  up  into  the  waiting  room  and  so  poor  that  he 
personally  obtained  for  her  a  room  at  a  reduced  rate. 
After  a  stay  of  three  weeks  her  spinal  trouble  left  her  and 
she  thought  she  was  cured.  But  she  obtained  more  than 
healing  from  Dr.  Quimby:  she  obtained  from  him  some- 
thing that  she  had  hitherto  lacked,  an  idea  and  a  mission, 
a  purpose  that  would  unify  her  discordant  life  and  call 
out  her  latent  personality  and  power.  She  haunted  Dr. 
Quimby 's  office,  *'asking  questions,  reading  manuscripts, 
and  observing  his  treatment  of  patients."  The  kindly 
old  man  took  an  interest  in  her  and  said,  "She's  a  devilish 
bright  woman." 

2  Milmine,  History,  p.  349. 


66  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Soon  after  her  recovery  she  wrote  a  long  letter  to  the 
Portland  Courier,  of  the  date  of  November  7,  1862,  in 
which  she  pays  a  laudatory  tribute  to  Dr.  Quimby  and 
explains  his  mode  of  healing.  In  these  early  letters  of 
Mrs.  Eddy's,  she  is  discovered  in  the  act  of  writing  her 
unassisted  and  unedited  English,  and  from  the  opening 
paragraph  of  this  letter  this  specimen  is  given: 

When  the  startled  alchemist  discovered,  as  he  supposed,  an 
universal  solvent,  or  the  philosopher's  stone,  and  the  more  daring 
Archimedes  invented  a  lever  wherewithal  to  pry  up  the  universe,  I 
cannot  say  that  in  either  the  principle  obtained  in  nature  or  in  art, 
or  that  it  worked  well,  having  never  tried  it.  But,  when  by  a  falling 
apple,  an  immutable  law  was  discovered,  we  gave  it  the  crown  of 
science,  which  is  incontrovertible  and  capable  of  demonstration; 
hence  that  was  wisdom  and  truth.  When  from  the  evidence  of  the 
senses,  my  reason  takes  cognizance  of  truth,  although  it  may  appear 
in  quite  a  miraculous  view,  I  must  acknowledge  that  as  science 
which  is  truth  uninvestigated. 

In  reading  the  following  extract  from  her  letter  bearing 
on  Dr.  Quimby's  method  of  heahng,  let  the  fact  be  kept 
in  mind  that  afterward  she  affirmed  that  he  was  a  mes- 
merist and  used  animal  magnetism  in  his  work: 

Is  it  by  animal  magnetism  that  he  heals  the  sick?  Let  us  examine. 
I  have  employed  electro-magnetism  and  animal  magnetism,  and  for 
a  brief  interval  have  felt  relief,  from  the  equilibrium  which  I  fancied 
was  restored  to  an  exhausted  system  or  by  diffusion  of  concentrated 
action.  But  in  no  instance  did  I  get  rid  of  a  return  of  all  my  ail- 
ments, because  I  had  not  been  helped  out  of  the  error  in  which 
opinions  involved  us.  My  operator  believed  in  disease,  independent 
of  the  mind;  hence  I  could  not  be  wiser  than  my  master.  But  now 
I  can  see  dimly  at  first,  and  only  as  trees  walking,  the  great  principle 
which  underlies  Dr.  Quimby's  faith  and  works;  and  just  in  proportion 
to  my  right  perception  of  truth  is  my  recovery.  This  truth  which 
he  opposes  to  the  error  of  giving  intelligence  to  matter  and  placing 
pain  where  it  never  placed  itself,  if  received  understandingly, 
changes  the  currents  of  the  system  to  their  normal  action;  and  the 
mechanism  of  the  body  goes  on  undisturbed.     That  this  is  a  science 


WHERE  DID  SHE  GET  HER  SYSTEM  OF  HEALING   67 

capable  of  demonstration,  becomes  clear  to  the  minds  of  those 
patients  who  reason  upon  the  process  of  their  cure.  The  truth 
which  he  establishes  in  the  patient  cures  him  (although  he  may  be 
wholly  unconscious  thereof);  and  the  body,  which  is  full  of  light,  is 
no  longer  in  disease.  At  present  I  am  too  much  in  error  to  elucidate 
the  truth,  and  can  touch  only  the  keynote  for  the  master  hand  to 
wake  to  harmony.  May  it  be  in  essays,  instead  of  notes!  say  I. 
After  all,  this  is  very  spiritual  doctrine;  but  the  eternal  years  of  God 
are  with  it,  and  it  must  stand  firm  as  the  rock  of  ages.  And  to 
many  a  poor  sufferer  may  it  be  found,  as  by  me,  "the  shadow  of  a 
great  rock  in  a  weary  land."^ 


This  letter  brought  ridicule  upon  both  Dr.  Quimby 
and  herself,  and  a  correspondent  of  the  Portland  Advertiser 
exclaimed,  *T.  P.  Quimby  compared  to  Jesus  Christ?" 
Again  Mrs.  Eddy  wrote  to  the  Courier: 


Noticing  the  paragraph  in  the  Advertiser,  commenting  upon 
some  sentences  of  mine  clipped  from  the  Courier,  relative  to  the 
science  of  P.  P.  Quimby,  concluding,  "What  next?"  we  would  reply 
in  due  deference  to  the  courtesy  with  which  they  define  their  position. 
P.  P.  Quimby  stands  upon  the  plane  of  wisdom  with  his  truth. 
Christ  healed  the  sick,  but  not  by  jugglery  or  with  drugs.  As  the 
former  speaks  as  never  man  before  spake,  and  heals  as  never  man 
healed  since  Christ,  is  he  not  identified  with  truth,'*  And  is  not 
this  the  Christ  which  is  in  him.?  We  know  that  in  wisdom  is  life, 
"and  the  life  was  the  light  of  man."  P.  P.  Quimby  rolls  away  the 
stone  from  the  sepulcher  of  error,  and  health  is  the  resurrection.  2 


Mrs.  Patterson  returned  from  Portland  to  Sanbornton 
Bridge  apparently  in  restored  health,  and  "Quimby 
became  the  great  possession  of  her  life."  She  talked  of 
him  incessantly  and  wrote  him  many  letters,  containing 
such  statements  as:  *'I  am  to  all  who  see  me  a  living 
wonder,  and  a  living  monument  of  your  power.  .  .  My 
explanation  of  your  curative  principle  surprises  people, 

1  Milmine,  History,  pp.  58,  59. 

2  Ibid,  p.  60. 


68  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

especially  those  whose  minds  are  all  matter."  A  few 
days  later  she  writes  asking  him  for  "absent  treatment," 
and  to  "please  come  to  me  and  remove  this  pain." 

In  1864  Mrs.  Patterson  again  spent  two  or  three  months 
in  Portland.  Dr.  Quimby  now  gave  her  much  of  his  time, 
and  Mrs.  Sarah  Crosby,  a  patient  of  Dr.  Quimby  with 
whom  Mrs.  Patterson  became  intimate,  says  of  her,  "She 
would  work  with  Dr.  Quimby  all  afternoon,  and  then  she 
would  come  home  and  sit  up  late  at  night  writing  down 
what  she  had  learned  during  the  day."  Again  she  left 
Portland  and  wrote  more  letters  to  Dr.  Quimby  full  of 
gratitude  and  praise.  "Who  is  wise  but  you. 5^ .  .  .  Doctor, 
I  have  a  strong  feeling  of  late  that  I  might  be  perfect 
after  the  command  of  science." 

Mr.  Quimby  died  on  January  16,  1866,  of  an  abdominal 
tumor,  and  many  mourned  the  good  man's  death.  None 
more  than  Mrs.  Patterson,  who  wrote  to  Julius  Dresser 
a  letter  inclosing  some  lines  of  poetry  on  the  death  of 
Dr.  Quimby,  the  letter  beginning:  "I  enclose  some  lines 
of  mine  in  memory  of  our  much-loved  friend,  which 
perhaps  you  will  not  think  overwrought  in  meaning: 
others  must  of  course."  The  concluding  lines  of  the  poem 
are:  "Rest  should  reward  him  who  hath  made  us  whole, 
seeking,  though  tremblers,  where  his  footsteps  trod." 

What  was  Mrs.  Patterson  doing  in  the  years  1864-1870.^ 
These  were  the  "wander  years"  during  which  she  went 
from  home  to  home,  creating  more  or  less  trouble  in  almost 
every  one  of  them.  She  was  teaching  the  Quimby 
"science"  of  healing,  using  for  this  purpose  a  manuscript 
which  she  said  had  been  written  by  "Dr.  P.  P.  Quimby" 
and  having  her  students  copy  it,  while  she  guarded  it 
most  jealously.     There  is  an  unbroken  chain  of  witnesses 


WHERE  DID  SHE  GET  HER  SYSTEM  OF  HEALING   69 

and  affidavits  and  other  evidences  to  prove  this  important 
fact  beyond  a  doubt. 

She  spent  two  years,  1868-1870,  at  the  home  of  Mrs. 
Sally  Wentworth  in  Stoughton,  Mass.  Here  she  used 
the  Quimby  manuscript  in  instructing  Mrs.  Wentworth, 
who  made  a  copy  of  it.  Mrs.  Wentworth's  son,  Horace  T. 
Wentworth,  had  his  mother's  copy  in  1907,  and  in  a  long 
affidavit,  made  in  that  year,  he  minutely  describes  it  and 
states: 

I  became  acquainted  with  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy,  now  of 
Concord,  N.  H,,  and  known  as  the  Discoverer  and  Founder  of 
Christian  Science,  in  the  year  1868,  when  she  was  the  wife  of  one 
Daniel  Patterson,  with  whom  she  was  now  living,  and  was  known 
by  the  name  of  a  former  husband,  one  George  W.  Glover,  and 
called  herself  Mrs.  Mary  M.  Glover.  .  .  Said  Mrs.  Glover,  upon 
coming  to  my  mother's  house,  lent  my  mother  her  manuscript  copy 
of  what  she,  Mrs.  Glover,  said  were  writings  of  said  Quimby,  and 
permitted  my  mother  to  make  a  full  manuscript  copy  thereof,  and 
said  manuscript  copy  of  the  writings  of  said  Quimby,  in  my  mother's 
handwriting,  and  with  corrections  and  interlineations  in  the  hand- 
writing of  Mrs.  Glover,  is  now,  and  has  been  since  my  mother's 
death,  in  my  possession.  On  the  outside,  said  copy  is  entitled 
"Extracts  from  Doctor  P.  P.  Quimby's  Writings,"  and  at  the  head 
of  the  first  page,  on  the  inside,  said  copy  is  further  entitled  "The 
Science  of  Man  or  the  Principle  Which  Controls  All  Phenomena." 
There  is  a  preface  of  two  pages  with  Mrs.  Mary  M.  Glover's  name 
signed  at  the  end.  The  extracts  are  in  the  form  of  fifteen  questions 
and  answers  and  are  labeled,  "Questions  by  patients,  Answers  by 
Dr.  Quimby."  Annexed  hereto,  marked  "Exhibit  A,"  is  a  full 
and  complete  copy  of  my  mother's  said  copy  of  Mrs.  Glover's  said 
copy  of  Dr.  Quimby's  writings.  Annexed  hereto,  marked  "Exhibit 
B"  is  a  photograph  of  the  first  page  of  Mrs.  Wentworth's  manuscript 
plainly  showing  the  additions  made  in  a  handwriting  not  my  mother's. 
All  of  the  said  first  page  shown  in  Exhibit  B  is  in  my  mother's 
handwriting  except  the  words  "Wisdom  Love  &"  added  to  the 
beginning  of  the  fifteenth  line,  the  word  "of"  and  the  symbol  "&" 
added  to  the  sixteenth  line  and  the  words  "is  in  it"  added  to  the 
seventeenth  line,  none  of  which  additions  is  in  my  mother's  hand- 
writing. 

Mr.  Wentworth  in  his  affidavit  proceeds  to  say  that. 


70  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

while  he  is  not  familiar  with  Mrs.  Glover's  writing, 
* 'having  compared  these  corrections  with  unquestionable 
writing  of  said  Mrs.  Glover's,  found  with  my  mother's 
papers,  and  seen  them  to  be  strikingly  similar,  I  am  con- 
fidently of  the  opinion  that  they  are  the  writing  of  the 
only  person  interested  in  the  correction  of  said  Mrs. 
Glover's  preface  to  said  Dr.  Quimby's  writings,  to  wit, 
said  Mrs.  Mary  M.  Glover— Mrs.  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy— 
herself." 

Miss  Milmine  gives  a  facsimile  of  the  first  page  of  this 
manuscript  with  its  corrections  in  a  different  handwriting 
as  described  in  Mr.  Wentworth's  affidavit.  1 

Affidavits  similar  to  that  of  Horace  T.  Wentworth 
were  made  by  Charles  O.  Wentworth,  his  brother,  Mrs. 
Arthur  L.  Holmes,  his  sister,  and  Mrs.  Catherine  I.  Clapp, 
his  cousin,  these  being  all  the  members  of  the  Wentworth 
family  living  at  the  time.  Mrs.  Clapp,  when  asked  if 
she  had  ever  heard  Mrs.  Glover  say  that  she  learned  her 
system  from  Dr.  Quimby,  said:  *'Yes,  and  I  am  not 
likely  to  forget  it.  It  is  fixed  in  my  memory  by  a  very 
reprehensible  proceeding  of  my  own.  You  see,  Mrs. 
Glover  used  to  say  this  to  everybody  who  came  in.  She 
wasn't  content  with  mentioning  it  once  or  twice  that  she 
had  learned  it  from  Dr.  Quimby,  she  repeated  it  so  often 
that  we  girls  got  dreadfully  tired  of  hearing  it."  The 
"reprehensible  proceeding  of  her  own"  was  that  she  used 
to  mock  Mrs.  Glover  who  "would  fold  her  hands  softly 
in  her  lap,  smile  gently,  nod  her  head  slowly  at  almost 
every  word,  and  say  in  a  sweet  voice,  *I  learned  this  from 
Dr.  Quimby  and  he  made  me  promise  to  teach  it  to  at 
least  two  persons  before  I  die.'  "     There  was  one  particular 

1  History,  p.  128. 


WHERE  DID  SHE  GET  HER  SYSTEM  OF  HEALING    71 

passage  in  Mrs.  Glover's  instructions  which  Mrs.  Clapp, 
then  a  young  girl,  "used  to  scoff  at  and  make  fun  of  to 
her  intimates.'*     It  ran  as  follows: 


The  daily  ablutions  of  an  infant  are  no  more  natural  or  necessary 
than  would  be  the  process  of  taking  a  fish  out  of  water  every  day 
and  covering  it  with  dirt  to  make  it  thrive  more  vigorously  thereafter 
in  its  native  element. 


Years  afterward,  Mrs.  Clapp  picked  up  a  copy  of 
"Science  and  Health,"  and  opened  it  at  this  identical 
passage  which  had  so  excited  her  girlish  derision,  i  Much 
other  testimony  and  evidence  are  available  to  prove  that 
this  manuscript  that  Mrs.  Glover  used  in  her  teaching 
during  the  years  1864-1870  was  a  manuscript  or  a  copy 
of  a  manuscript  of  P.  P.  Quimby's  and  embodied  his 
system  of  healing. 

Finally  we  have  the  explicit  proof  given  by  Miss 
Milmine  as  follows: 


George  A.  Quimby  of  Belfast,  Me.,  has  lent  the  writer  one  of  his 
father's  manuscripts,  entitled,  "Questions  and  Answers."  This  is 
in  the  handwriting  of  Mr.  Quimby's  mother,  the  wife  of  Phineas  P. 
Quimby,  and  is  dated,  in  Mrs.  Quimby's  handwriting,  February, 
1862 — nine  months  before  Mrs.  Eddy's  first  visit  to  Portland.  For 
twenty  closely  written  pages,  Quimby's  manuscript,  "Questions  and 
Answers,"  is  word  for  word  the  same  as  Mrs.  Glover's  manuscript, 
"The  Science  of  Man."2 


The  proof  has  reached  demonstration  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
had  Quimby's  manuscript  and  derived  her  teaching  from 

1  Peabody,  Masquerade,  pp.  87,  89.  Mr.  Peabody  locates  this 
precious  passage  on  page  41  of  the  1898  edition  of  Science  and  Health, 
but  it  is  now  found  on  page  413  of  that  changeable  book. 

2  History,  pp.  128,  129. 


72  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

him  and  attributed  it  to  him.     The  contents  of  this 
manuscript  will  be  reserved  until  the  next  chapter. 

It  remains  only  to  add  that  as  late  as  1871,  after  Mrs. 
Eddy  had  settled  in  Lynn,  she  acknowledged  that  she 
derived  her  "art"  from  Dr.  Quimby.  In  a  letter  written 
on  March  7,  1871,  to  Mr.  W.  W.  Wright,  of  Lynn,  who 
had  asked  her,  *'Has  this  theory  ever  been  advertised  or 
practiced  before  you  introduced  it,  or  by  any  other  in- 
dividual.''" she  replied: 

Never  advertised,  and  practiced  by  only  one  individual  who 
healed  me.  Dr.  Quimby  of  Portland,  Me,,  an  old  gentleman  who  had 
made  it  a  research  for  twenty-five  years,  starting  from  the  stand- 
point of  magnetism  thence  going  forward  and  leaving  that  behind. 
I  discovered  the  art  in  a  moment's  time,  and  he  acknowledged  it  to 
me;  he  died  shortly  after  and  since  then,  eight  years  I  have  been 
founding  and  demonstrating  the  science.  .  ,  please  preserve  this, 
and  if  you  become  my  student  call  me  to  account  for  the  truth  of 
what  I  have  written.     Respectfully,  M.  M.  B.  Glover. 

Let  it  be  noted  that  in  this  letter  Mrs.  Eddy  acknowl- 
edges that  Dr.  Quimby  started  *'from  the  standpoint 
of  magnetism  thence  going  forward  and  leaving  that 
behind." 

5.  MRS.  EDDY'S  DENIAL  OF  DEPENDENCE  ON  QUIMBY 

In  the  face  of  all  this  evidence  and  of  her  own  written 
and  published  acknowledgments  of  indebtedness  to  him, 
will  it  be  believed  that  Mrs.  Eddy,  after  she  launched 
out  on  her  public  career  as  a  mental  healer  and  founder 
of  a  religion,  positively  and  repeatedly  denied  that  she 
had  derived  her  ideas  from  P.  P.  Quimby,  but  affirmed  that 
he  had  derived  his  ideas  from  her?  He  had  not  taught 
her,  but  she  had  taught  him!  Yet  this  is  what  she  did 
and,  as  usual,  over  her  own  signature. 


WHERE  DID  SHE  GET  HER  SYSTEM  OF  HEALING    73 

When  Mrs.  Eddy  turned  against  Dr.  Quimby,  she  began 
by  representing  that  he  was  a  mesmerist  and  magnetic 
healer,  although  she  herself  had  said  that  Dr.  Quimby 
had  started  by  this  method  but  had  gone  forward,  "leaving 
that  behind.'*  Julius  A.  Dresser,  a  student  and  follower 
of  Quimby,  resented  this  misrepresentation  of  Quimby 
and  wrote  a  letter  to  this  effect  in  the  Boston  Post  of 
February  24,  1883.  Mrs.  Eddy  replied  in  a  letter  to  the 
same  paper  of  March  7,  1883,  in  which  she  made  this 
barefaced  statement: 

We  never  were  a  student  of  Dr.  Quimby's.  .  .  Dr.  Quimby 
never  had  students,  to  our  knowledge.  He  was  a  Humanitarian, 
but  a  very  unlearned  man.  He  never  published  a  work  in  his  life; 
was  not  a  lecturer  or  teacher.  He  was  somewhat  of  a  remarkable 
healer,  and  at  the  time  we  knew  him  he  was  known  as  a  mesmerist. 
We  were  one  of  his  patients.  He  manipulated  his  patients,  but 
possibly  back  of  his  practice  he  may  have  had  a  theory  in  advance 
of  his  method.  .  .  We  knew  him  about  twenty  years  ago,  and 
aimed  to  help  hirn.  We  saw  he  was  looking  in  our  direction,  and 
asked  him  to  write  his  thoughts  out.  He  did  so,  and  then  we 
would  take  that  copy  to  correct,  and  sometimes  so  transform  it  that 
he  would  say  it  was  our  composition,  which  it  virtually  was;  but  we 
always  gave^  him  back  the  copy  and  sometimes  wrote  his  name  on 
the  back  of  it.^ 

In  * 'Science  and  Health,"  edition  of  1884,  Mrs.  Eddy 
says  of  Quimby : 

The  old  gentleman  to  whom  we  have  referred  had  some  very 
advanced  views  on  healing,  but  he  was  not  avowedly  religious  neither 
scholarly.  We  interchanged  thoughts  on  the  subject  of  healing  the 
sick.  I  restored  some  patients  of  his  he  failed  to  heal,  and  left  in 
his  possession  some  manuscripts  of  mine  containing  corrections  of 
his  desultory  pennings  which  I  am  imformed,  at  his  decease,  passed 
into  the  hands  of  a  patient  of  his,  now  residing  in  Scotland.  He 
died  in  1865  and  left  no  published  works.  The  only  manuscript 
that  we  ever  had  of  his,  longer  than  to  correct  it,  was  one  of  perhaps 
a  dozen  pages,  most  of  which  we  composed. 

1  Milmine,  History,  p.  96. 


74  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

It  is  true  that  Mr.  Quimby  **left  no  published  works" 
but  he  was  not  "iUiterate,"  as  Mrs.  Eddy  in  another 
statement  declared,  and  he  left  manuscripts  of  "over 
eight  hundred  pages,  covering  one  hundred  and  twenty 
subjects,  written  previous  to  March,  1862,  more  than  six 
months  before  Mrs.  Eddy  went  to  Dr.  Quimby."  In 
her  controversy  with  Mr.  Julius  A.  Dresser,  Mrs.  Eddy 
published  the  following  remarkable  challenge: 

Mr.  George  A.  Quimby,  son  of  the  late  Phineas  P.  Quimby,  over 
his  own  signature  and  before  witnesses,  stated  in  1883,  that  he  had 
in  his  possession  at  that  time  all  the  manuscripts  that  had  been 
written  by  his  father.  And  I  hereby  declare  that  to  expose  the 
falsehood  of  parties  publicly  intimating  that  I  have  appropriated 
matter  belonging  to  the  aforesaid  Quimby,  I  will  pay  the  cost  of 
printing  and  publishing  the  first  edition  of  those  manuscripts  with 
the  author's  name.  Provided,  that  I  am  allowed  to  examine  said 
manuscripts,  and  do  find  that  they  were  his  own  compositions,  and 
not  mine,  that  were  left  with  him  many  years  ago,  or  that  they 
have  not  since  his  death,  in  1865,  been  stolen  from  my  published 
works.  Also  that  I  am  given  the  right  to  bring  out  this  one  edition 
under  the  copyright  of  the  owner  of  said  manuscripts,  and  all  the 
money  accruing  from  the  sale  of  said  book  shall  be  paid  to  said 

owner.     Some  of  the  purported  writings,  quoted  by   Mr.   D 

were  my  own  words  as  near  as  I  can  recollect  them. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  such  an  offer  was  not  accepted. 
Mrs.  Eddy  would  quickly  have  found  that  these  alleged 
manuscripts  of  Mr.  Quimby  were  not  *'his  own  com- 
positions," but  were  her  own,  or  had  "been  stolen"  from 
her  own  "published  works. "i 

1  The  question  is  often  asked.  Why  are  not  these  Quimby  manu- 
scripts published  so  that  the  world  may  see  their  contents  for  itself? 
On  this  point  Horatio  W.  Dresser,  Ph.  D,,  the  son  of  Julius  A.  Dresser, 
in  his  "History  of  the  New  Thought  Movement,"  p.  338,  says: 
"For  reasons  best  known  to  himself,  Mr.  George  A.  Quimby  steadily 
refused  to  publish  the  manuscripts  during  the  life-time  of  Mrs.  Eddy. 
By  previous  arrangement  with  Mr.  Quimby  our  family  copies  were 
returned  to  him  in  1893,  and  we  were  not  permitted  to  quote  any  of 


WHERE  DID  SHE  GET  HER  SYSTEM  OF  HEALING    75 

When  Mrs.  Eddy  was  confronted  by  Julius  A.  Dresser, 
in  a  letter  in  the  Boston  Post,  the  same  letter  to  which 
reference  has  already  been  made,  making  public  some  of 
the  articles  and  letters  which  she  had  written  acknowl- 
edging her  indebtedness  to  Dr.  Quimby,  she  in  her  letter 
to  the  same  paper,  March  7,  1883,  made  this  remarkable 
statement: 

Did  I  write  those  articles  purporting  to  be  mine?  I  might  have 
written  them  twenty  or  thirty  years  ago,  for  I  was  under  the  mes- 
meric treatment  of  Dr.  Quimby  from  1862  until  his  death  in  1865. 
He  was  illiterate  and  I  knew  nothing  then  of  the  Science  of  Mind- 
healing,  and  I  was  as  ignorant  of  mesmerism  as  Eve  before  she  was 
taught  by  the  serpent.  Mind  Science  was  unknown  to  me;  and  my 
head  was  so  turned  by  animal  magnetism  and  will-power,  under 
his  treatment,  that  I  might  have  written  something  as  hopelessly 
incorrect  as  the  articles  now  published  in  the  Dresser  pamphlet.  I 
was  not  healed  until  after  the  death  of  Dr.  Quimby;  and  then  healing 
came  as  the  result  of  my  discovery  in  1866,  of  the  Science  of  Mind- 
healing,  since  named  Christian  Science. 

When  in  1887  Mrs.  Eddy  asked  Rev.  James  Henry 
Wiggin,  her  literary  adviser  and  reviser,  to  answer  the 
charge  brought  against  her  on  the  basis  of  her  pubhc 
acknowledgments  of  her  indebtedness  to  Quimby,  he  asked 
her  if  she  had  written  the  letters  to  the  Portland  news- 
papers, the  poem  on  Quimby's  death  and  other  effusions. 

the  articles  in  full  either  in  *The  Philosophy  of  P.  P.  Quimby,' 
1895,  or  in  'Health  and  the  Inner  Life,'  1896.  Mr.  Quimby  died 
without  making  any  provision  for  the  disposition  of  the  manuscripts. 
It  remains  for  the  historian  to  edit  and  publish  these  writings  at 
some  future  time.  The  historian  has  been  personally  acquainted 
with  all  the  patients  and  followers  of  P.  P.  Quimby  who  have  had 
the  use  of  the  manuscripts.  Miss  Milmine  was  allowed  to  reproduce 
part  of  a  page  of  one  of  them  for  her  life  of  Mrs.  Eddy  published 
in  McClure's  Magazine."  In  a  personal  letter  from  Dr.  Dresser  he 
tells  the  author  that  he  himself  is  the  "historian"  referred  to.  The 
Dressers,  father  and  son,  who  had  personal  access  to  and  knowledge 
of  the  Quimby  manuscripts,  had  no  doubt  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  indebted- 
ness to  them  for  her  ideas. 


76  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

When  she  admitted  that  she  had,  he  said  to  her,  "Then 
there  is  nothing  to  say." 

In  a  personal  letter  to  a  friend,  Mr.  Wiggin  said: 

What  Mrs.  Eddy  has,  as  documents  clearly  prove,  she  got  from 
P.  P.  Quimby,  of  Portland,  Me.,  whom  she  eulogized  after  death 
as  the  great  leader  and  her  special  teacher.  .  .  She  has  tried  to 
answer  this  charge  of  the  adoption  of  Quimby's  ideas,  and  called 
me  in  to  her  counsel  about  it;  but  her  only  answer  (in  print!)  was 
that  if  she  said  such  things  twenty  years  ago,  she  must  have  been 
under  the  influence  of  Animal  Magnetism.! 

So  ended  and  so  stands  the  case  of  the  relation  of  Mrs. 
Eddy  to  P.  P.  Quimby.  That  she  should  have  derived 
her  system,  at  least  in  idea  and  germ,  from  him  was  nothing 
to  her  discredit  and  nothing  unusual  in  the  history  of 
ideas,  which  are  rarely  or  never  discovered  as  an  absolute 
originality  but  are  always  derived  from  or  suggested  by 
or  related  to  the  work  of  other  thinkers.  Such  derivation 
is  always  proper  and  honorable,  provided,  of  course,  it  is 
acknowledged  and  not  denied.  Mrs.  Eddy  at  first  did 
make  this  acknowledgment  in  the  fullest  and  frankest 
measure,  but  afterwards  when  she  became  established 
in  her  public  career  as  a  healer  and  founder  of  a  religion 
she  came  to  think  that  any  acknowledgment  of  in- 
debtedness to  Mr.  Quimby  was  a  reduction  on  her  own 
standing  and  especially  that  it  was  fatal  to  her  claim  of 
receiving  her  discovery  by  divine  revelation;  a  claim 
which  she  presently  made;  and  therefore  she  disowned 
Quimby,  denied  her  own  words,  set  up  a  claim  to  false 
originality  and  backed  it  up  with  a  deliberate  untruth. 
And  of  this  indebtedness  and  this  denial  she  is  convicted 
out  of  her  own  mouth. 

1  Mil  mine.  History,  pp.  102, 103. 


CHAPTER  V 
"SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH";  THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BOOK 

It  is  now  time  to  consider  "Science  and  Health,"  the 
book  which  claims  to  be  the  inspired  bible  of  Christian 
Science.  There  will  be  given,  first,  some  account  of  the 
making  of  this  remarkable  work,  and  then  a  summary  of 
its  contents. 

1.  CONTENTS  OF  THE  QUIMBY  MANUSCRIPT 

It  is  in  order  at  this  point  to  give  an  outline  of  the 
contents  and  teaching  of  the  manuscript  which  Mrs.  Eddy- 
used  in  her  instruction  in  1864-1870  and  which  it  has  been 
proved  she  derived  from  P.  P.  Quimby  and  during  these 
years  constantly  acknowledged  as  his.  This  manuscript, 
which  was  lent  to  Miss  Milmine  by  George  A.  Quimby, 
Dr.  Quimby's  son,  consisted  of  twenty  closely  written 
pages  and  was  entitled  ^'Questions  and  Answers."  Mrs. 
Eddy  headed  the  copy  she  used  at  the  top  with  "Extracts 
from  Doctor  P.  P.  Quimby 's  Writings,"  and  underneath 
this  with  "The  Science  of  Man."  Quotations  from  this 
manuscript  are  given  by  Miss  Milmine,  1  Dr.  Powell,  2 
and  Mr.  Peabody,^  in  their  respective  books.  The 
arrangement  of  these  quotations  with  parallel  quotations 
from  Mrs.  Eddy's  "Science  and  Health,"  here  given,  is 
taken  from  Mr.  Peabody,  with  the  exception  of  several 
quotations,  which  are  from  Dr.  Powell. 

1  History,  pp.  129,  130. 

2  Christian  Science,  pp.  48,  49. 

3  Masquerade,  pp.  92-94. 

77 


78  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 


From  Quimby's 
"Science  and  Man." 

Christian  Science.^ 

Science  of  Health. 

Matter  has  no  intelligence. 

If  I  understand  how  disease 
originates  in  the  mind  and  fully 
believe  it,  why  cannot  I  cure 
myself? 

Never  get  in  a  passion,  but  in 
patience  possess  ye  your  soul, 
and  at  length  you  weary  out  the 
discord  and  produce  harmony  by 
your  Truth  destroying  error. 
Then  it  is  you  get  the  case. 
Now  if  you  are  not  afraid  and 
argue  down,  then  you  can  heal 
the  sick. 

Error  is  sickness.  Truth  is 
health. 

In  this  science  the  names  are 
given;  thus  God  is  Wisdom. 
This  Wisdom,  not  an  in- 
dividuality but  a  principle,  em- 
braces every  idea  form,  of  which 
the  idea,  man,  is  the  highest, 
hence  the  image  of  God,  or  the 
Principle. 

Understanding  is  God. 

Truth  is  God. 

Wisdom,  Love,  and  Truth  are 
principle. 


From  Mrs.  Eddy's 
"Science  and  Health." 

Christian  Science. 

Science  and  Health. 

Matter  cannot  produce  mind. 

Disease  being  a  belief,  a  latent 
delusion  of  mortal  mind,  the  sen- 
sation would  not  appear  if  this 
error  was  met  and  destroyed  by 
Truth. 

When  we  come  to  have  more 
faith  in  the  Truth  of  Being  than 
we  have  in  error,  more  faith  in 
spirit  than  in  matter,  then  no 
material  conditions  can  prevent 
us  from  healing  the  sick  and 
destroying  error  through  Truth. 


Sickness  is  part  of  the  error 
which  Truth  casts  out. 

God  is  the  principle  of  man; 
and  the  principle  of  man  re- 
maining perfect,  its  idea  or  re- 
flection— man — remains  perfect. 
Man  was  and  is  God's  idea. 
Man  is  the  idea  of  divine 
principle.  What  is  God?  Je- 
hovah is  not  a  person,  God  is 
principle. 

Understanding  is  a  quality  of 
God. 

Truth  is  God. 

Adhere  to  its  divine  Principle, 
and  follow  its  behests,  abiding 
steadily  in  Wisdom,  Love,  and 
Truth. 


1  Miss  Milmine  gives  a  facsimile  of  a  part  of  another  manuscript 
by  Dr.  Quimby  in  his  own  handwriting  containing  the  words 
"Christian  Science."  As  this  manuscript  bears  the  date  1863,  this 
is  incontestable  proof  that  Mrs.  Eddy  did  not  originate  this  name, 
as  she  says  she  did.  See  McClures  Magazine,  vol.  XXVIII,  p. 
511,  for  this  facsimile.  The  use  of  the  word  "science,"  however,  m 
this  peculiar  sense  goes  back  of  Quimby.  It  was  so  used  by  Charles 
Poyen.     See  p.  19. 


SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH";  MAKING  OF  THE  BOOK     79 

Error  is  matter.  Matter  is  mortal  error. 

To  give  intelligence  to  matter  The     fundamental     error     of 

is  an  error  which  is  sickness.  mortal   man   is   the   belief   that 

matter  is  intelligent. 

Matter  has  no  intelligence  of  Laws  of   matter  are  nothing 

its  own,  and  to  believe  intelli-  more   or   less   than    a    belief   of 

gence  is  in  matter  is  the  error  intelligence  and  life  in   matter, 

which    produces    pain    and    in-  which  is  the  procuring  cause  of 

harmony  of  all  sorts.  all  disease. 

For  matter  is  an  error,  there  There  is  no  life,  truth,  intelli- 

being    no    substance,    which    is  gence,  or  substance  in  matter. 
Truth  in  a  thing  which  changes 
and   is   only   that   which    belief 
makes  it. 

The  identity  of  teaching  extending  to  the  very  words  in 
these  two  writings  is  obvious  and  undeniable.  The  key 
words  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  book,  *'science,"  *'truth/*  "principle," 
"mind,"  "error,"  "matter,"  "belief,"  which  she  uses  in  a 
peculiar  sense  as  a  kind  of  jargon  or  lingo,  are  all  derived 
from  Quimby  who  used  them  in  the  same  peculiar  sense. 
Such  expressions  as  "Truth  is  God,"  "God  is  Principle," 
"Matter  is  Error,"  "There  is  no  intelligence  in  matter," 
which  Mrs.  Eddy  repeats  thousands  of  times  with  weari- 
some and  infinite  repetition  in  her  book,  are  all  taken 
bodily  from  Quimby.  He  built  his  instructions  and 
practice  around  these  same  ideas  and  phrases  and  wrote 
them  indelibly  into  his  manuscripts,  where  they  stand  to 
this  day  published  in  facsimile  and  can  be  seen  and  read 
of  all  men.  The  merest  superficial  acquaintance  with 
Mrs.  Eddy's  "Science  and  Health"  shows  that  her  book 
is  built  up  around  the  same  ideas  and  words  and  phrases. 
She  repeats  the  same  ideas,  practices  the  same  healing 
art,  speaks  the  same  language.  Mrs.  Eddy  was  right  and 
was  simply  telling  the  truth  when  she  kept  telling  her 
students  during  1864-1870,  "I  learned  this  from  Dr. 
Quimby." 


80  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Thus  the  roots  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  teaching  and  book  run 
back  into  P.  P.  Quimby  and  through  him  and  others 
down  into  the  subsoil  of  New  England  transcendentalism 
and  other  *'isms"  that  grew  so  rank  in  that  region.  Of 
course  she  elaborated  these  germinal  ideas  or  at  least 
repeated  them  and  spun  them  out  into  her  system  and 
book.  It  cannot  be  claimed  that  she  had  no  originality 
and  was  a  mere  echo  of  other  voices.  She  had  a  mind 
and  especially  a  will  and  purpose  of  her  own,  and  she 
wrought  these  out  into  her  book  and  her  church.  But 
the  substance  and  core  of  her  teaching  were  not  her  own, 
but  came  from  the  humble  and  benevolent  clock  maker  at 
whose  feet  she  obediently  sat  and  then  rose  up  at  first  to 
praise  him  extravagantly  and  follow  him  loyally,  and  then 
to  deny  and  disown  him  and  even  to  claim  that  he  had 
taken  from  her  what  she  had  purloined  from  him. 

In  the  face  of  these  proven  facts  she  had  the  effrontery 
to  assert  in  the  original  first  preface  to  * 'Science  and 
Health,"  "Not  one  of  our  printed  works  was  ever  copied 
or  abstracted  from  the  published  or  from  the  unpublished 
writings  of  anyone;"  and  she  had  the  further  boldness  to 
insert  in  her  autobiography  a  chapter  on  *Tlagiarism'*  in 
which  she  denounces  this  thing  and  declares  that  it  *'does 
violence  to  the  ethics  of  Christian  Science"! 

2.  THE  EDITIONS  OF  "SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH" 

During  the  years  from  1864  to  1870  in  all  the  house- 
holds where  she  stopped  Mrs.  Eddy  was  writing,  writing, 
and  referring  to  her  manuscripts  as  her  *'Bible."  As 
early  as  1866  when  she  was  at  Lynn  she  said  she  "was 
writing  a  Bible,  and  was  almost  through  Genesis."  At 
Mrs.  Wentworth's  at  Stoughton,  where  she  spent  two 


•'SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  MAKING  OF  THE  BOOK     81 

years,  1868-1870,  she  "pointed  affectionately  to  a  pile  of 
notepaper  tied  up  with  a  string,  which  lay  on  her  desk,  and 
told  Mrs.  Clapp  (Mrs.  Wentworth's  niece)  that  it  was 
her  Bible,  and  that  she  had  completed  the  book  of  Gene- 


sis. 


1 


For  at  least  eight  years  she  had  been  at  work  on  her 
manuscript  before  she  sought  a  pubhsher.  It  was  while 
she  was  with  Mrs.  Wentworth  that  she  took  the  book  to 
a  Boston  printer,  and  when  he  demanded  payment  in 
advance  for  publishing  it  she  tried  to  borrow  the  money 
from  her,  but  the  money  was  not  forthcoming.  "Had 
Mrs.  Glover,"  says  Miss  Milmine,  "then  been  successful 
in  her  search  for  a  publisher,  Christian  Science  in  its 
present  form  would  never  have  existed;  for  at  that  time 
she  had  not  dreamed  of  calling  her  system  anything  but 
Quimby's  Science.  "^ 

The  book  first  saw  the  light  in  1875,  when  she  was  at 
work  in  Lynn,  and  two  of  her  students,  Miss  Elizabeth 
Newhall  and  George  Barry,  furnished  the  money,  $1500, 
to  secure  its  publication,  the  expense  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
many  changes  in  the  plates  increasing  the  cost  to  $.^200. 
In  spite  of  her  intense  faith  in  her  book,  she  was  chary 
about  venturing  her  own  money  on  it  and  saw  that  others 
ran  the  risk  of  any  loss  while  she  would  reap  any  gain. 
The  book  contained  456  pages  and  sold  at  $2.50.  The 
first  edition  consisted  of  1000  copies,  but  when  the  book 
fell  flat  on  the  market  the  price  was  reduced  to  $1.00. 
Copies  were  sent  for  review  to  the  New  England  news- 
papers, and  to  some  notable  institutions  and  people, 
such  as  the  University  of  Heidelberg  and  Thomas  Carlyle. 


1  Milmine,  History,  pp.  131,  132. 

2  Ibid,  p.  176. 


82  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

But  it  received  little  notice  other  than  flippant  references 
to  its  vagaries,  and  the  *'ill-made,  cheap-looking  affair'* 
seemed  to  drop  into  the  waters  of  oblivion.  One  woman, 
however,  still  had  indomitable  faith  in  its  future,  and  her 
faith  in  due  time  was  justified. 

By  1877  Mrs.  Eddy  was  busily  at  work  on  a  second 
edition  of  her  book,  when  it  was  hurried  to  the  press  on 
account  of  her  quarrel  with  her  publisher,  Daniel  Spofford, 
and  it  has  already  been  noted  how  she  turned  into  a 
bitter  personal  attack  upon  him  this  edition  which  con- 
sisted of  an  "odd  little  brown  book,"  labeled  Volume  II, 
although  the  first  edition  has  not  been  labeled  Volume  lA 

The  third  edition,  which  appeared  in  1881,  was  also 
turned  into  a  personal  polemic  and  attack  on  Richard 
Kennedy.  A  new  chapter  appeared  in  this  edition, 
entitled  "Demonology,"  which  poured  out  all  the  vials 
of  her  wrath  against  her  former  student  and  partner. 
From  this  a  characteristic  quotation  has  been  given.  2 

Prosperity  was  now  smiling  upon  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  new 
editions  of  *'Science  and  Health"  came  thick  and  fast. 
The  *'Key  to  the  Scriptures"  was  added  to  the  book  in 
1884.  The  book  has  now  passed  through  about  ^we 
hundred  editions.  They  were  announced  as  new  editions 
up  to  near  this  point,  but  of  late  years  this  is  no  longer 
done  and  only  the  year  of  publication  is  given.  Of 
course  these  "editions"  are  mostly  simply  additional 
printings  and  are  not  properly  editions,  but  in  a  sur- 
prising number  of  them  the  book  underwent  revision  and 
sometimes  radical  change.  For  a  number  of  years  the 
book  was  in  a  state  of  flux  and  its  contents  floated  around 
within  the  covers  in  the  most  astonishing  way.     Not 

1  Page  44. 

2  Page  44. 


^'SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  MAKING  OF  THE  BOOK     83 

only   were   there   constant   additions   and   subtractions, 
but  the  order  of  the  chapters  was  frequently  changed. 
On  this  point  Dr.  Powell  writes : 

No  matter  what  editions  you  may  chance  to  be  comparing,  there 
is  an  unexpected  instability  of  arrangement  in  a  book  which  the 
author  claims  is  of  the  nature  of  "final  revelation."  Mrs.  Eddy  is 
not  content  to  let  the  sequence  remain  permanent.  Of  four  editions 
dated,  respectively,  1881,  1888,  1898,  and  1906,  the  chapter  which 
comes  first  in  the  first  and  second  of  the  four  editions  comes  fifth  in 
the  third  and  sixth  and  fourth.  The  second  chapter  in  the  first  and 
second  editions  is  third  and  eighth  respectively  in  the  third  and 
fourth.  The  third  chapter  in  the  first  edition  appears  as  the  fifth 
in  the  second,  the  second  in  the  third,  and  the  seventh  in  the  fourth. 
Chapter  IV  in  the  first  edition  is  Chapter  XII  in  the  second  and  XIV 
in  the  third  and  fourth  editions.  Chapter  V  in  the  first  is  IX  in  the 
second,  XII  in  the  third  and  fourth.  And  the  variation  lasts 
throughout. 1 

While  the  chapters  were  thus  being  shuffled  around 
into  new  arrangements,  changes  were  being  introduced 
in  their  paragraphs,  and  some  of  these  are  significant. 
For  example,  in  the  1903  edition  on  page  274  there  is 
this  declaration:  *'Until  it  is  learned  that  generation 
rests  on  no  sexual  basis,  let  marriage  continue."  But  in 
the  1909  edition  this  declaration  is  found  on  page  64  and 
has  been  changed  to  read  as  follows:  "Until  it  is  learned 
that  God  is  the  Father  of  all,  marriage  will  continue.*' 
In  both  cases  it  is  implied  that  generation  does  not  rest 
on  a  sexual  basis,  but  until  this  fact  is  conceded  the  first 
version  permits  marriage  to  Christian  Scientists  and  the 
second  version  simply  declares  that  marriage  will  continue: 
the  first  version  grants  a  permission  which  the  second 
version  does  not  allow;  but  either  way  it  reads  the  state- 
ment is  a  subtle  blow  at  the  foundation  of  marriage  and 
brands  it  as  a  temporary  delusion,  which,  should  give 
way  to  "a  more  spiritual  adherence." 

1  Christian  Science,  pp.  18,  19. 


84  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

The  sale  of  the  book,  of  course,  has  been  enormous  and 
it  has  proved  probably  the  richest  literary  gold  mine  of 
a  century;  and  as  every  Christian  Scientist  is  supposed 
and  sometimes  commanded  to  purchase  the  latest  issue, 
the  point  of  these  many  *'editions"  is  easily  seen. 

3.  WHO  WROTE  THE  BOOK? 

Mark  Twain  refuses  to  believe  that  Mrs.  Eddy  unaided 
wrote  *'Science  and  Health."  He  devotes  many  pages 
to  a  higher  critical  examination  of  her  ideas  and  style 
in  her  early  and  acknowledged  writings  to  show  that  the 
same  hand  could  not  have  written  the  generally  smooth 
and  intelligent  English  of  her  main  book.  To  believe 
this  he  says  *'is  more  than  difficult,  it  is  impossible." 
He  continues: 

Largely  speaking,  I  have  read  acres  of  what  purported  to  be  Mrs 
Eddy's  writings,  in  the  past  two  months.  I  cannot  know,  but  I  am 
convinced,  that  the  circumstantial  evidence  shows  that  her  actual 
share  in  the  work  of  composing  and  phrasing  these  things  was  so 
slight  as  to  be  inconsequential.  Where  she  puts  her  literary  foot 
down,  her  trail  across  her  paid  polisher's  page  is  as  plain  as  the 
elephant's  in  a  Sunday-school  procession.  Her  verbal  output, 
when  left  undoctored  by  her  clerks,  is  quite  unmistakable.  It 
always  exhibits  the  strongly  distinctive  features  observable  in  the 
virgin  passages  from  her  pen  already  quoted  by  me: 

Desert  vacancy,  as  regards  thought. 

Self-complacency. 

Sentimentality. 

Affectations  of  scholarly  learning. 

Lust  after  eloquent  and  flowery  expression. 

Repetition  of  pet  poetic  picturesquenesses. 

Confused  and  wandering  statement. 

Metaphor  gone  insane. 

Meaningless  words,  used  because  they  are  pretty,  or  showy 

or  unusual. 
Sorrowful  attempts  at  the  epigrammatic. 
Destitution  of  originality. ^ 

1  Christian  Science,  pp.  130,  131. 


'SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH";  MAKING  OF  THE  BOOK      85 

He  concludes  that  *'it  is  not  believable  that  the  hand 
that  wrote  those  clumsy  and  affected  sentences  wrote  the 
smooth  English  of  "Science  and  Health."  Mark  Twain 
was  right  in  his  higher  critical  instinct  and  guess  i  that 
Mrs.  Eddy  must  have  had  *'a  paid  pohsher"  and  *'clerks" 
to  put  her  own  lucubrations  in  shape,  but  it  is  the  general 
opinion  that  he  does  more  than  justice  to  the  Enghsh  of 
*'Science  and  Health."  That  is  bad  enough  in  the  later 
editions  of  the  book,  but  in  the  early  editions  it  is  Mrs. 
Eddy's  own  thought  and  style  beyond  a  doubt. 

The  author  has  not  been  able  to  obtain  or  even  to  see 
a  copy  of  the  first  edition  of  *'Science  and  Health," 
although  he  has  applied  for  it  to  the  Christian  Science 
publishers  and  headquarters,  2  but  Miss  Milmine  gives 
an  extended  quotation  from  it  that  bears  the  marks  of 
its  being  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  own  unaided  style,  a  fine 
specimen^  of  which  has  already  been  given. 

A  portion  of  Miss  Milmine's  extract  is  the  following: 

The  belief  that  fasting  or  feasting  enables  man  to  grow  better, 
morally  or  physically,  is  one  of  the  fruits  of  "the  tree  of  knowledge" 
against  which  Wisdom  warned  man,  and  of  which  we  had  partaken 
in  sad  experience;  believing  for  many  years  we  lived  only  by  the 
strictest  adherence  to  dietetics  and  physiology.  During  this  time  we 
also  learned  a  dyspeptic  is  very  far  from  the  image  and  likeness  of 
God,  from  having  "dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  the  fowls  of  the 
air,  or  beasts  of  the  field;"  therefore  that  God  never  made  one; 
while  the  Graham  system,  hygiene,  physiology,  materia  medica,  etc., 
did,  and  contrary  to  his  commands.  Then  it  was  that  we  promised 
God  to  spend  our  coming  years  for  the  sick  and  suffering;  to  unmask 
this  error  of  belief  that  matter  rules  man.     Our  cure  for  dyspepsia 

1  Mark  Twain  wrote  his  book  in  1902  and  1903  and  therefore  was 
not  acquainted  with  the  later  disclosures  as  to  the  part  played  by 
the  Rev.  James  Henry  Wiggin  as  Mrs.  Eddy's  literary  reviser. 

2  "The  first  edition  of  Science  and  Health  has  been  so  far  as  possible 
suppressed."     H.  W.  Dresser,  The  New  Thought  Movement,  p.  111. 

3  Page  34. 


86  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

was,  to  learn  the  science  of  being,  and  "eat  what  was  set  before  us, 
asking  no  question  for  conscience'  sake;  yea  to  consult  matter  less 
and  God  more.''^ 

Miss  Milmine  also  describes  the  first  edition  of  "Science 
and  Health'*  as  follows: 

Even  after  eight  years  of  struggle  with  her  copy,  the  book,  as 
printed  in  1875,  is  hardly  more  than  a  tangle  of  words  and  theories* 
faulty  in  grammar  and  construction,  and  singularly  vague  and  contra- 
dictory in  its  statements.  Although  the  book  is  divided  into 
chapters,  each  having  a  title  of  its  own,  there  is  no  corresponding 
classification  of  the  subject,  and  it  is  only  by  piecing  together  the 
declarations  found  in  the  various  chapters  that  one  may  make  out 
something  of  the  theories  which  Mrs.  Glover  had  been  trying  for  so 
long  to  express. 2 

The  conclusion  is  that  Mrs.  Eddy  did  write  * 'Science 
and  Health*'  as  it  appeared  in  its  first  and  early  editions. 


4.  ENTER:  REVEREND  JAMES  HENRY  WIGGIN.  LITERARY  REVISER 

At  this  point  there  enters  upon  the  scene  Rev.  James 
Henry  Wiggin  who  plays  an  important  part  in  this  story. 
He  is  the  *'paid  polisher"  whose  hand  Mark  Twain  dis- 
cerned in  Mrs.  Eddy's  book  by  an  improvement  in  her 
style,  as  Leverrier  detected  the  presence  of  an  unknown 
planet  by  its  influence  on  another  planet. 

Mr.  Wiggin  was  a  Unitarian  minister,  a  graduate  of  the 
Meadville  (Pa.)  Theological  Seminary  in  the  class  of 
1861,  who  had  retired  from  the  active  ministry  in  1875, 
although  for  years  he  continued  occasionally  to  occupy  a 
pulpit.  He  was  a  large  man  physically,  who  had  a  rich 
sense  of  humor  and  enjoyed  life.  He  was  a  lover  of 
music,  an  inveterate  theatergoer,  and  had  Shakspere  on 

1  History,  p.  81. 

2  Ibid,  p.  178. 


"SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  MAKING  OF  THE  BOOK     87 

the  end  of  his  tongue  so  that  he  could  furnish  an  apt 
quotation  from  the  poet  to  adorn  any  subject  or  occasion. 
Edward  Everett  Hale  and  other  distinguished  literary 
men  were  among  his  associates.  He  was  a  man  of  wide 
reading  and  fine  culture  and  was  specially  fitted  for  the 
peculiar  task  to  which  he  was  called. 

One  day  in  August,  1885,  Calvin  Frye  called  on  Mr. 
Wiggin  and  introduced  himself  as  the  secretary  of  a  lady 
who  had  TVTitten  a  book  and  wished  to  engage  him  to 
revise  it.  A  few  days  later  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  appeared 
and  completed  the  engagement.  Mr.  Wiggin  went  to 
work  for  her  and  continued  to  serve  as  her  literary  adviser 
and  reviser  for  four  years.  Mrs.  Eddy  placed  in  his 
hands  the  bulky  manuscript  of  a  new  edition  of  "Science 
and  Health"  which  she  had  prepared,  and  Mr.  Wiggin 
took  it  with  him  on  his  vacation  for  leisurely  examination. 
Such  examination  soon  showed  him  that  the  revision  the 
book  needed  was  practically  a  rewriting  of  it.  "The 
faulty  spelling  and  punctuation  could  have  been  corrected 
readily  enough,  as  well  as  the  incorrect  historical  refer- 
ences and  the  misuse  of  words;  but  the  whole  work  was 
so  involved,  formless,  and  contradictory  that  Mr.  Wiggin 
put  the  manuscript  away  and  thought  no  more  about  it 
until  he  returned  to  Boston." 

Upon  his  return  from  his  vacation  he  intimated  to 
Mrs.  Eddy  his  views  about  the  book  and  his  proposal  as 
to  what  should  be  done  with  it,  and  to  his  surprise  she 
willingly  consented.  During  the  autumn  he  worked  upon 
the  task  of  virtually  rewriting  the  book,  she  keeping  a 
close  watch  upon  him  to  see  that  he  did  not  change  her 
teaching  and  that  he  continued  to  use  her  technical  words 
in  her  peculiar  sense.     Miss  Milmine  gives  several  para- 


88  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

graphs  as  they  appeared  in  the  1884  edition  and  the 
corresponding  paragraphs  as  they  appeared  in  the  1886 
edition  as  revised  by  Mr.  Wiggin,  and  the  reader  will  at 
once  see  the  improvement  in  almost  every  sentence. 
The  following  paragraph  is  from  the  1884  edition: 


What  is  man?  Brains,  heart,  blood,  or  the  entire  human 
structure?  If  he  is  one  or  all  of  the  component  parts  of  the  body, 
when  you  amputate  a  limb,  you  have  taken  away  a  portion  of  man, 
and  the  surgeon  destroys  manhood,  and  worms  are  annihilators  of 
man.  But  losing  a  limb,  or  injuring  structure,  is  sometimes  the 
quickener  of  manliness;  and  the  unfortunate  cripple  presents  more 
nobility  than  the  statuesque  outline,  whereby  we  find  "a  man's  a 
man,  for  a'  that." 

The  same  passage  in  the  1886  edition  as  revised  by  Mr. 
Wiggin  reads: 

What  is  man?  Brains,  heart,  blood,  the  material  structure?  If 
he  is  but  a  material  body,  when  you  amputate  a  limb,  you  must  take 
away  a  portion  of  the  man;  the  surgeon  can  destroy  Kianhood,  and 
the  worms  annihilate  it.  But  the  loss  of  a  limb  or  injury  to  a  tissue, 
is  sometimes  the  quickener  of  manliness,  and  the  unfortunate  cripple 
may  present  more  of  it  than  the  statuesque  athlete,  teaching  us,  by 
his  very  deprivations,  that  "a  man's  a  man,  for  a'  that." 

Sometimes,  however,  his  revision  went  deeper  than 
mere  diction  and  cut  into  the  form  and  substance  of  her 
teaching,  as  in  the  following  instance.  The  paragraph  is 
from  Mrs.  Eddy's  own  1884  edition: 


The  glorious  spiritual  signification  of  the  life  and  not  death  of 
our  Master — for  he  never  died — was  laying  down  all  of  earth  to 
instruct  his  enemies  the  way  to  heaven,  showing  in  the  most  sublime 
and  unequivocal  sense  how  heaven  is  obtained.  The  blood  of  Jesus 
was  not  as  much  offered  on  the  cross  as  before  those  closing  scenes  of 
his  earth  mission.  The  spiritual  meaning  of  blood  is  offering 
sacrifice,  and  the  efficacy  of  his  life  offering  was  greater  than  that 
of  his  blood  spilled  upon  the  cross.     It  was  the  consecration  of  his 


"SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  MAKING  OF  THE  BOOK      89 

whole  being  upon  the  altar  of  Love,  a  deathless  offering  to  Spirit. 
O,  highest  sense  of  human  affections  and  higher  spiritual  conceptions 
of  our  Infinite  Father  and  Mother,  show  us  what  is  Love! 


The  following  is  the  same  passage  as  rendered  by  Mr. 
Wiggin  in  the  1886  edition: 


The  material  blood  of  Jesus  was  no  more  efficacious  to  cleanse 
from  sin,  when  it  was  shed  upon  the  "accursed  tree,"  than  when  it 
was  flowing  in  his  veins  as  he  went  daily  about  his  Father's  business. 
His  spiritual  flesh  and  blood  were  his  Life;  and  they  truly  eat  his 
flesh  and  drink  his  blood,  who  partake  of  that  Life.  The  spiritual 
meaning  of  blood  is  sacrifice.  The  efficacy  of  Jesus'  spirit-offering 
was  infinitely  greater  than  can  be  expressed  by  our  mortal  sense  of 
human  life.  His  mission  was  fulfilled.  It  reunited  God  and  man  by 
his  career.  His  offering  was  Love's  deathless  sacrifice;  for  in  Jesus' 
experience  the  human  element  was  gloriously  expanded  and  absorbed 
into  the  divine.^ 


Mr.  Wiggin  had  a  still  deeper  hand  in  the  reconstruction 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  book.  He  actually  supplied  and  was  the 
author  of  one  of  the  chapters  that  appeared  in  the  1886 
edition.  He  drew  up  for  her  the  outline  of  a  sermon 
upon  the  "city  that  lieth  foursquare,"  which  she  preached 
in  her  pulpit  on  January  24,  1886,  "with  great  success, 
though  the  Journal,  in  reporting  the  occasion,  says  that 
Rev.  Mrs.  Eddy  laboured  under  some  disadvantage,  as 
she  had  left  her  manuscript  at  home."  Mr.  Wiggin  was 
present  in  the  audience  and  went  up  at  the  close  of  the 
service  to  speak  to  her  as  she  stood  in  the  midst  of  her 
admirers.  When  she  saw  him  *'her  eyes  began  to  twinkle, 
and,  putting  her  hand  to  her  lips,  she  shot  him  a  stage 
whisper:  *How  did  it  go.^'  "  Miss  Milmine  completes 
the  story  of  the  new  chapter  as  follows : 

1  Milmine,  History,  pp.  329,  330. 


90  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

When  Mr.  Wiggin  persuaded  her  to  omit  the  libelous  portion  of 
the  chapter  on  mesmerism  from  the  1886  edition  of  "Science  and 
Health"  after  the  plates  for  the  edition  had  been  made,  Mrs.  Eddy, 
at  Mr.  Wiggin's  suggestion,  cut  this  sermon  to  the  required  length 
and  by  inserting  it  was  able  to  send  the  book  to  press  without 
renumbering  the  remaining  pages.  The  chapter  was  called  "Way- 
side Hints  (Supplementary),"  and  Mrs.  Eddy  put  her  seal  upon  it 
by  inserting  under  the  subject  of  "squareness  "  a  tribute  to  her 
deceased  husband:  "We  need  good  square  men  everywhere.  Such  a 
man  was  my  late  husband.  Dr.  Asa  G.  Eddy."i 

The  reader  of  "Science  and  Health"  as  it  stands  to-day, 
however,  will  think  that  Mrs.  Eddy's  *'paid  polisher'* 
still  left  much  work  that  might  have  been  done  in  im- 
proving that  much-tinkered  book.  It  is  still  characterized 
by  affectation  and  obscurity  and  ineptitude  and  infinite 
repetition  and  especially  by  Mrs.  Eddy's  lingo  or  jargon 
of  words  which  she  uses  in  her  own  peculiar  sense,  though 
this  lingo  was  also  derived  from  Quimby  and  others  of 
her  literary  forbears.  She  sometimes  uses  words  with  as 
ludicrous  misapprehension  of  their  real  meaning  as  does 
Mrs.  Partington.  For  instance,  she  thinks  the  name  of 
the  Assyrian  god  Sin  is  the  same  word  as  our  word  *'sin,"2 
thinks  "mysticism"  means  the  same  as  "mystery,"^ 
frequently  confuses  "pantheism"  with  "materiaHty,"^ 
confuses  "adulteration"  with  "adultery,"  and  makes 
many  such  mistakes  that  escaped  the  pen  of  her  paid 
polisher.  Some  of  her  etymologies  and  definitions  in 
her  "Glossary"  in  "Science  and  Health"  are  fearfully 
and  wonderfully  made.  "Abel"  means  "Watchfulness," 
"Canaan"  means  "A  sensuous  belief,"  "Dan"  means 
"Animal  magnetism,"  and  "Gad"  means  "Science."     We 

1  History,  p.  335. 

2  Science  and  Health,  p.  103. 

3  Ibid,  p.  80. 

4  Ibid.  p.  522. 


"SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  MAKING  OF  THE  BOOK     91 

had  always  thought  very  highly  of  Moses  but  in  this 
*' Glossary"  we  learn  to  our  disappointment  that  "Moses" 
means  *'A  corporeal  mortal."  This  entrance  in  the 
Glossary  is  specially  puzzling:  **IN.  A  term  obsolete  in 
Science  if  used  with  reference  to  Spirit,  Deity."  Hebrew 
etymology  exercises  little  restraint  upon  Mrs.  Eddy, 
although  at  times  she  airily  refers  to  the  Hebrew  as  if 
she  knew  all  about  it,  forgetting  that  her  knowledge  of 
"Greek,  Latin,  and  Hebrew,"  which  her  brother  taught 
her  when  she  was  only  nine  years  of  age,  "after"  her 
"discovery  of  Christian  Science"  "vanished  like  a  dream." 

A  sense  of  humor  would  have  saved  Mrs.  Eddy  from 
all  this,  but  she  did  not  have  a  drop  of  it  in  her  whole 
system.  She  takes  all  her  pompous  affectations  of 
learning  and  shallow  ignorance  and  ridiculous  blun- 
ders and  confused  thinking  and  doggerel  poetry  and 
solemn  incomprehensibilities  in  dead  earnest.  ^  They  are 
all  equally  inspired  and  infallible  to  her.  How  did  Mr. 
Wiggin,  with  all  his  sense  of  humor,  restrain  himself 
from  loud  laughter  as  his  censor's  pen  passed  these  things? 
Doubtless  he  did  go  as  far  as  he  could  or  was  permitted 
to  go  in  cutting  such  things  out,  and  as  it  was  not  his 
book  he  had  to  let  its  author  have  her  way  at  many 
points  which  he  would  have  quickly  polished  away. 

Doctor  Powell,  who  is  himself  a  good  literary  writer 
and  critic,  passes  this  judgment  on  this  book: 

The  difficulty  is  not  merely  with  the  style,  which  though  often 
marred  by  absurdity,  turgidity,  and  faulty  diction,  possesses  a 
certain  lofty  distinctiveness,  a  certain  sonorous  authoritativeness, 

1  Robert  Hugh  Benson,  an  English  Roman  Catholic  prelate, 
says:  "I  am  certain  that  Christian  Science  rises  almost  entirely  from 
a  lack  of  the  sense  of  humor."     A  Book  of  Essays,  p.  18. 


92  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

which  a  book  that  claims  to  be  a  revelation  ought  to  have  to  com- 
mand the  interest  of  the  undiscriminating.  The  difficulty  is  also 
with  the  arrangement  of  the  work.  There  is  a  woeful  want  of 
sequence  both  in  thought  and  word.  The  reader  can  begin  anywhere 
and  stop  anywhere  without  serious  loss  or  gain.  Mrs.  Eddy  in  one 
section  states  that  certain  of  her  sentences  read  backward  mean  as 
much  as  when  read  forward,  and  many  not  of  her  persuasion  will 
readily  agree  with  her.  .  .  Mrs.  Eddy  has  undoubtedly  improved 
greatly  in  her  power  to  express  herself  on  paper,  since  her  literary 
helper  twenty  years  ago  testified  she  was  constantly  confusing  such 
words  as  physics  and  physiology,  gnostic  and  agnostic,  and  putting 
him  to  his  wits'  end  to  save  her  "from  making  herself  ridiculous  and 
flatly  contradicting  herself."  But  there  is  still  some  justification  for 
Mark  Twain's  sweeping  judgment  that  Mrs.  Eddy  "so  lacks  in  the 
matter  of  literary  precision  that  she  can  seldom  put  a  thought  into 
words  that  express  it  lucidly  to  the  reader  and  leave  no  doubts  in  his 
mind  as  to  whether  he  has  rightly  understood  or  not.l 


This  account  of  the  relations  of  Mr.  Wiggin  with 
Mrs.  Eddy  is  closed  with  a  brief  reference  to  the  sad  fate 
that  finally  overtook  this  good  man.  Like  nearly  all  the 
students  and  associates  and  helpers  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  with  the 
exception  of  Calvin  A.  Frye,  he  at  length  fell  from  her 
grace  into  deep  condemnation.  The  devil  of  *'M.  A.  M." 
at  last  got  him.  Signs  of  the  coming  end  began  when 
she  charged  him  with  a  "most  shocking  flippancy  in 
notations"  upon  her  proofs.  He  seems  to  have  indulged 
in  some  humorous  marginal  scribblings,  and  she  could 
not  stand  any  humor  or  wit  in  him,  as  she  could  not 
appreciate  it  in  anybody  else.  In  a  letter  to  her  publisher 
in  which  she  complains  about  the  "flippancy"  she  says  of 
him:  "When  he  returned  the  first  proofs  a  belief  (but 
don't  name  this  to  anyone)  prevented  my  examining  them 
as  I  should  otherwise  have  done,  and,  to  prevent  delay, 
the  proof  was  sent  to  the  printer."  The  "belief"  referred 
to  was  simply  an  attack  of  illness  which  prevented  Mrs. 

1  Christian  Science,  pp.  17-20. 


"SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  MAKING  OF  THE  BOOK     93 

Eddy  from  examining  Mr.  Wiggin's  proofs.  He  not  only 
*'changed  his  own  marginal  references"  but  also  "took 
back  the  word  *cannot'  throughout  the  entire  proofs, 
which  he  had  before  insisted  upon  using  thereby  causing 
another  delay."  Evidently  her  "paid  polisher"  was 
getting  too  independent  and  flippant  toward  her  book, 
and  this  was  a  very  grave  offense  in  her  sight.  Three 
months  later  (November,  1890)  she  again  complained 
about  his  proofs  and  says:  "This  is  M.  A.  M.  [Malicious 
Animal  Magnetism]  and  it  governs  Wiggin  as  it  has  done 
once  before  to  prevent  the  publishing  of  my  work.  .  .  I 
will  take  the  proof-reading  out  of  Wiggin 's  hands." 
This  sealed  his  doom  and  he  drops  out  of  this  history. 
In  a  letter  to  a  college  friend,  from  which  a  brief  quotation 
has  been  made,  dated  December  14,  1889,  and  published 
by  Miss  Milmine  in  her  "History,"  Mr.  Wiggin  gives  his 
private  view  of  Christian  Science  and  of  Mrs.  Eddy, 
which  Miss  Milmine  says  is  "an  interesting  criticism  of 
Christian  Science"  and  "probably  the  most  trenchant 
and  suggestive  sketch  of  Mrs.  Eddy  that  will  ever  be 
written."  He  was  then  about  through  with  Mrs.  Eddy 
and  speaks  confidentially  but  freely  and  unsparingly,  yet 
not  unkindly.  The  reader  will  be  interested  in  the 
following  extracts: 


Christian  Science,  on  its  theological  side,  is  an  ignorant  revival 
of  one  form  of  ancient  gnosticism,  that  Jesus  is  to  be  distinguished 
from  the  Christ,  and  that  his  earthly  appearance  was  phantasmal, 
not  real  and  fleshly.  On  its  moral  side,  it  involves  what  must  follow 
from  the  doctrine  that  reality  is  a  dream,  and  that  if  a  thing  is  right 
in  thought,  why  right  it  is,  and  sin  is  nonexistent,  because  God  can 
behold  no  evil.  Not  that  Christian  Science  believers  generally  see 
this,  or  practice  evil,  but  the  virus  is  within. 

Religiously,  Christian  Science  is  a  revolt  from  orthodoxy,  but 
unphilosophically  conducted,  endeavoring  to  ride  two  horses.     Phys- 


94  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

ically  it  leads  people  to  trust  all  to  nature,  the  great  healer,  and  so 
does  some  good.  Great  virtue  in  imagination!  .  .  .  Where  there 
is  disease  which  time  will  not  reach.  Christian  Science  is  useless. 

As  for  the  High  Priestess  of  it,  .  .  .  She  is — well  I  could  tell 
you,  but  not  write.  An  awfully  (I  use  the  word  advisedly)  smart 
woman,  acute,  shrewd,  but  not  well  read,  nor  in  any  way  learned. 
What  she  has,  as  documents  clearly  show,  she  got  from  P.  P.  Quimby 
of  Portland,  Maine,  whom  she  eulogized  after  death  as  the  great 
leader  and  her  special  teacher.  .  .  She  tried  to  answer  the  charge 
of  the  adoption  of  Quimby's  ideas,  and  called  me  in  to  counsel  her 
about  it;  but  her  only  answer  in  (print!)  was  that  if  she  said  such 
things  twenty  years  ago,  she  must  have  been  under  the  influence  of 
"animal  magnetism,"  which  is  her  devil.  No  church  can  get  along 
without  a  devil,  you  know.  Much  more  I  could  say  if  you  were 
here. 

One  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  followers  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  if  she 
saw  Mrs.  Eddy  commit  a  crime  she  should  believe  her  own  sight  at 
fault,  not  Mrs.  Eddy's  conduct.  An  intelligent  man  told  me  in 
reference  to  lies  he  knew  about,  that  the  wrong  was  in  us.  "Was 
not  Jesus  accused  of  wrongdoing,  yet  guiltless.^" 

Only  experience  can  teach  these  fanatics,  i.  e.,  the  real  believers, 
not  the  charlatans  who  go  into  it  for  money.  .  .  As  for  the  book, 
if  you  have  any  edition  since  December,  1885,  it  had  my  super- 
vision. Though  now  she  is  getting  out  an  entirely  new  edition, 
with  which  I  had  nothing  to  do    and  occasionally  she  has  made 

changes  whereof  I  did  not  know.     The  chapter  B told  you  of  is 

rather  fanciful,  though,  to  use  Mrs.  Eddy's  language  in  her  last  note, 
her  "friends  think  it  a  gem."  It  is  the  one  called  "Wayside  Hints," 
and  was  added  after  the  work  was  not  only  in  type,  but  cast,  because 
she  wished  to  take  out  some  twenty  pages  of  diatribe  on  her  dis- 
senters. I  do  not  think  it  will  greatly  edify  you,  the  chapter.  As 
for  clearness,  many  Christian  Science  people  thought  her  early 
editions  much  better,  because  they  sounded  more  like  Mrs.  Eddy. 
The  truth  is,  she  does  not  care  to  have  her  paragraphs  clear,  and 
delights  in  so  expressing  herself  that  her  words  may  have  various 
readings  and  meanings.  Really,  that  is  one  of  the  tricks  of  her  trade. 
You  know  how  sibyls  have  always  been  thus  oracular,  to  "keep  the 
word  of  promise  to  the  ear,  and  break  it  to  the  hope."  .  .  .  No, 
Swedenborg,  and  all  other  such  writers,  are  sealed  books  to  her. 
She  cannot  understand  such  utterances,  and  never  could,  but 
dollars  and  cents  she  understands  thoroughly. i 

5.  MRS.  EDDY'S  CLAIMS  TO  DIVINE  INSPIRATION 

The  bottom  of  the  alleged  basis  and  origin  of  this  book 
has  not  yet  been   reached.     A   divinely   accredited   and 

1   History,  pp.  337-339. 


^SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  MAKING  OF  THE  BOOK      95 

well-equipped  religion  must  have  an  inspired  revelation 
or  Bible,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  did  not  overlook  this  point. 
She  nowhere  acknowledged  her  indebtedness  to  Mr. 
Quimby  and  Mr.  Wiggin  for  their  part  in  the  production 
of  *'Science  and  Health,"  but  she  was  voluble  in  her  claims 
that  God  helped  her  to  write  it,  or  rather  that  he  wrote 
it  so  that  it  was,  as  she  called  it,  "God's  book.'*  She 
began  to  hint  at  this  claim  as  early  as  1877  when,  in  a 
letter  to  a  student,  she  said:  *'I  know  the  crucifixion  of 
the  one  who  presents  Truth  in  its  higher  aspect  will  be 
this  time  through  a  bigger  error,  through  mortal  mind 
instead  of  its  lower  strata  or  matter,  showing  that  the 
idea  given  of  God  this  time  is  higher,  clearer,  and  more 
permanent  than  before."^ 

In  her  autobiography  we  may  read: 

The  divine  hand  led  me  into  a  new  world  of  light  and  Life,  a 
fresh  universe — old  to  God,   but  new  to  his  "little  one." 

And  a  little  further  on  we  read: 

Even  the  Scriptures  gave  no  direct  interpretation  of  the  scientific 
basis  for  demonstrating  the  spiritual  Principle  of  healing,  until  our 
heavenly  Father  saw  fit,  through  the  "Key  to  the  Scriptures,"  in 
"Science  and  Health,"  to  unlock  this  "mystery  of  religion. "2 

This  puts  "Science  and  Health"  with  "Key  to  the 
Scriptures  "  above  the  Bible  as  a  later  and  more  perfect 
revelation,  "higher,  clearer,  and  more  permanent,"  as 
she  herself  says.  One  may  read  in  this  book  such  state- 
ments as  "  when  God  impelled  me,"  and  "  God  has  since 
shown  me." 

1  Milmine,  History,  p.  73. 

2  Retrospection  and  Introspection,  pp.  27  and  37. 


96  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Turning  to  "Science  and  Health"  we  read: 

In  the  year  1866,  I  discovered  the  Science  of  Metaphysical 
Healing,  and  named  it  Christian  Science.  God  had  been  graciously 
Btting  me,  during  many  years,  for  the  reception  of  a  final  revelation 
of  the  absolute  Principle  of  Scientific  Mind-healing.  ^  No  human 
pen  or  tongue  taught  me  the  science  contained  in  this  book.  .  . 
and  neither  tongue  nor  pen  can  overthrow  it.^ 

The  advent  of  this  understanding  is  what  is  meant  by  the  descent 
of  the  Holy  Ghost — that  influx  of  divine  Science  which  so  illumi- 
nated the  Pentecostal  Day  and  is  now  repeating  ancient  history. 
...  In  the  words  of  St.  John:  "He  shall  give  you  another  Com- 
forter, that  he  may  abide  with  you  forever.'"  This  Comforter  I 
understand  to  be  divine  Science.  2 

Writing  in  1901  she  said: 

I  should  blush  to  write  of  "Science  and  Health,"  with  "Key  to  the 
Scriptures"  as  I  have,  were  it  of  human  origin  and  I,  apart  from  God, 
its  author,  but  as  I  am  only  a  scribe  echoing  the  harmonies  of 
Heaven  in  divine  metaphysics,  I  cannot  be  supermodest  of  the 
Christian  Science  textbook.^ 

In  every  Christian  Science  church  every  sermon  by 
the  rules  of  the  church  is  preceded  by  the  following 
declaration : 

The  canonical  writings,  together  with  the  word  of  our  textbook 
("Science  and  Health"),  corroborating  and  explaining  the  Bible 
texts  in  their  spiritual  import  and  application  to  all  ages,  past, 
present  and  future,  constitute  a  sermon  undivorced  from  truth,  un- 
contaminated  and  unfettered  by  human  hypotheses,  and  authorized 
by  Christ. 

In  "Miscellaneous  Writings"  she  says: 

The  works  I  have  written  on  Christian  Science  contain  absolute 
Truth,  and  my  necessity  was  to  tell  it;  therefore  I  did  this  even  as  a 
surgeon  who  wounds  to  heal.  I  was  a  scribe  under  orders;  and  who 
can  refrain  from  transcribing  what  God  indites,  and  ought  not  that 
one  take  the  cup,  drink  all  of  it,  and  give  thanks?* 

1  Science  and  Health,  1898  edition,  pp.  550  ff. 

2  Ibid,  1916  edition,  pp.  43  and  55. 

3  Peabody,  Masquerade,  p.  57. 

4  Page  3. 


"SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  MAKING  OF  THE  BOOK     97 

Once  more,  to  conclude  these  claims  of  inspiration 
which  might  be  further  multipHed,  in  her  organ,  the 
Christian  Science  Journal,  of  January,  1901,  Mrs.  Eddy- 
says: 

It  was  not  myself  .  .  .  which  dictated  "Science  and  Health" 
with  "Key  to  the  Scriptures."  It  was  the  divine  power  of  Truth 
and  Love,  infinitely  above  me.i 

She  thus  boldly  and  unblushingly  claims  that  her  book 
is  not  *'of  human  origin,"  but  was  "dictated"  by  "divine 
Truth  and  Love,"  and  revelation  by  "dictation"  is  the 
extremest  form  of  plenary  verbal  inspiration. 

But  this  is  not  the  limit.  Something  far  more 
painful  is  yet  to  come.  Mrs.  Eddy's  followers  are  daring 
enough,  and  she  herself  does  not  hesitate,  to  exalt  her  to 
equality  with  Christ  and  crown  her  with  deity.  In 
"Science  and  Health,"  1898  edition,  she  says: 

The  impersonation  of  the  Spiritual  idea  had  a  brief  history  in  the 
earthly  life  of  our  Master;  but  of  his  kingdom  there  shall  be  no  end; 
for  Christ,  God's  idea,  will  eventually  rule  all  nations  and  peoples — 
imperatively,  absolutely,  finally — with  Divine  Science.  This  im- 
maculate idea,  represented  first  by  man  and  last  by  woman,  will 
baptize  with  fire.^ 

In  her  autobiography  she  writes : 

No  person  can  take  the  individual  place  of  the  Virgin  Mary.  No 
person  can  compass  or  fulfill  the  individual  mission  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth.  No  person  can  take  the  place  of  the  author  of  "Science 
and  Health,"  the  discoverer  and  founder  of  Christian  Science.^ 

In  the    Christian    Science    Journal    for    April,    1889, 

1  Mark  Twain,  Christian  Science,  p.  144. 

2  Page  550.      .  _ , 

^Introspection  and  ^etrospectionj  p.  95.  -    f - 


98  THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

which  was  then  owned  and  pubHshed  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  an 
article  appeared  which  made  an  elaborate  argument  to 
prove  that  she  was  the  equal  of  Jesus.  *'Now  a  word," 
said  the  writer,  * 'about  the  horror  many  good  people 
have  of  our  making  the  author  of  'Science  and  Health* 
equal  with  Jesus."l 

In  1894  Mrs.  Eddy  wrote  and  published  a  "poem" 
illustrated  with  a  picture  in  which  Jesus  is  represented 
as  seated  on  a  stone  holding  the  right  hand  of  a  woman, 
who  in  her  left  hand  holds  a  scroll  bearing  the  inscription 
''Christian  Science,"  thus  identifying  the  woman  with 
Mrs.  Eddy  herself.  About  the  head  of  each  figure  there 
is  a  halo,  and  on  the  opposite  page,  illustrated  by  the 
picture,  are  the  lines,  "As  in  blessed  Palestine's  hour, 
so  in  our  age  'tis  the  same  hand  unfolds  his  Power  and 
writes  the  page."  Mrs.  Eddy  not  only  wrote  the  "poem," 
but  also  claimed  a  share  in  making  the  illustrations, 
"which,"  Mr.  Peabody  says,  "her  man  Hanna  called 
'exquisite  bits  of  art,'  but  which  are,  doubtless,  the 
vulgarest  products  of  the  art  of  bookmaking  of  many 
years. "2  This  performance  called  forth  such  an  outcry 
of  protest  and  indignation,  even  from  some  of  her  followers, 
that  she  withdrew  the  little  book  (which  was  sold  for  $3.00) 
from  circulation,  with  the  remark,  "Scientists  sometimes 
take  things  too  seriously." 

Mrs.  Eddy  early  began  to  identify  herself  with  the 
"woman"  in  the  book  of  Revelation.  She  quotes  ch. 
12 :1  and  then  says :  "The  Revelator  saw  also  the  spiritual 
ideal  as  a  woman  clothed  in  light,  a  bride  coming  down 
from  heaven,  wedded  to  the  Lamb  of  Love.   .    .  The 

1  Peabody,  Masquerade,  p.  51. 

2  Masquerade,  pp.  51,  52. 


"SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  MAKING  OF  THE  BOOK      99 

woman  in  the  Apocalypse  symbolizes  generic  man,  the 
spiritual  idea  of  God;  she  illustrates  the  coincidence  of 
God  and  man  as  the  divine  Principle  and  divine  idea."i 
In  time  she  began  to  think  of  herself  as  the  incarnation 
of  the  motherhood  of  God,  and  the  idea  that  she  should  be 
worshiped  as  the  correlative  and  coequal  of  the  Father 
was  not  unwelcome  to  her  mind.  This  seems  to  be  the 
purport  and  point  of  her  audacity  in  rendering  the  opening 
of  The  Lord's  Prayer  as  *'Our  Father-Mother  God/* 
In  the  nineties  * 'Mother  Mary"  became  a  common  desig- 
nation of  her  by  her  followers.  Everybody  spoke  of  her 
as  "Mother."  She  sometimes  signed  herself  ''Mother 
Mary."  The  President  of  the  National  Christian  Science 
Association  on  one  occasion  said,  * 'There  is  but  one  Moses, 
one  Jesus;  and  there  is  but  one  Mary. "2 

This  idea  culminated  in  one  of  the  by-laws  of  her 
church,  written  by  herself,  which  reads  as  follows: 

The  Title  of  Mother.  In  the  year  1895  loyal  Christian  Scientists 
had  given  the  author  of  their  textbook,  the  Founder  of  Christian 
Science,  the  individual  and  endearing  term  of  Mother.  Therefore, 
if  a  student  of  Christian  Science  shall  apply  this  title,  either  to 
herself  or  to  others,  except  as  the  term  for  kinship  according  to  the 
flesh,  it  shall  be  regarded  by  the  Church  as  an  indication  of  dis- 
respect for  their  pastor  emeritus,  and  unfitness  to  be  a  member  of 
the  mother  church. ^ 

Thus  was  this  woman  deified  by  her  followers  and 
herself,  exalted  to  equality  with  and,  indeed,  to  superiority 
to,  Christ  and  finally  raised  to  equality  with  God  himself, 
and  possibly  she  meant  to  join  her  name  with  his  in  the 
adoration  of  our  Father-Mother  God! 

1  Science  and  Health,  pp.  560,  561. 

2  Powell,  Christian  Science,  pp.  150,  151. 

^  In  later  editions  of  the  Church  Manual,  Christian  Scientists  are 
instructed  to  substitute  "Leader"  for  "Mother." 


100        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

There  is,  however,  an  interesting  sequel  to  this  matter 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  use  of  the  name  "mother."  After  the 
appearance  of  Mark  Twain's  sarcastic  book  in  which  he 
punctures  with  his  sharp  pen  many  of  the  pretensions 
of  Mrs.  Eddy  she  issued  a  statement  in  the  press  in  which 
she  said : 

In  view  of  the  circulation  of  certain  criticisms  from  the  pen  of 
Mark  Twain,  I  submit  the  following  statement:  It  is  a  fact,  well 
understood,  that  I  begged  the  students  who  first  gave  me  the  en- 
dearing apellative  "Mother"  not  to  name  me  thus.  But,  without 
my  consent,  that  word  spread  like  wildfire.  I  still  must  think  the 
name  is  not  applicable  to  me.  I  stand  in  relation  to  this  century 
as  a  Christian  discoverer,  founder,  and  leader.  I  regard  self- 
deification  as  blasphemous;  I  may  be  more  loved,  but  I  am  less 
lauded,  pampered,  provided  for,  and  cheered  than  others  before  me 
— and  wherefore?  Because  Christian  Science  is  not  yet  popular, 
and  I  refuse  adulation.  ,  .  I  believe  in  but  one  incarnation,  one 
Mother  Mary,  and  I  know  I  am  not  that  one,  and  never  claimed  to 
be. 

Mark  Twain  did  not  fail  to  see  and  seize  his  opportunity, 
and  he  replies  to  her  in  a  scintillating  chapter  in  his  book, 
the  opening  sentences  of  which  are:  *T  feel  almost  sure 
that  Mrs.  Eddy's  inspiration  works  are  getting  out  of 
repair.  I  think  so  because  they  made  some  errors  in  a 
statement  which  she  uttered  through  the  press  on  the 
17th  of  January."     The  following  is  an  extract: 

She  still  thinks  the  name  of  our  Mother  not  applicable  to  her; 
and  she  is  also  able  to  remember  that  it  distressed  her  when  it  was 
conferred  upon  her,  and  that  she  begged  to  have  it  suppressed.  Her 
memory  is  at  fault  here.  If  she  will  take  her  by-laws,  and  refer  to 
Section  1  of  Article  XXII,  written  with  her  own  hand — she  will  find 
that  she  has  reserved  that  title  to  herself,  and  is  so  pleased  with  it 
that  she  threatens  with  excommunication  any  sister  Scientist  who 
shall  call  herself  by  it. 

He  also  reproduces  a  telegram  she  sent  on  May  27, 


"SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  MAKING  OF  THE  BOOK    101 

1890,  to  the  National  Christian  Science  Association 
then  in  session  in  New  York  in  reply  to  one  from  the 
secretary  of  the  association,  who  was  **instructed  to  send 
to  our  Mother  greetings  and  words  of  affection  from  her 
assembled  children."  Her  response  was:  *'A11  hail! 
He  hath  filled  the  hungry  with  good  things  and  the  sick 
hath  he  not  sent  empty  away. — Mother  Mary." 

*'  Thus  it  stands  proven,"  continues  Mark  Twain, 
"and  established  that  she  is  that  Mary  and  isn't,  and 
thought  she  was  and  knows  she  wasn't.  That  much  is 
clear.  She  is  also  *The  Mother,'  by  the  election  of  1895, 
and  did  not  want  the  title,  and  thinks  it  is  not  applicable 
to  her,  and  will  excommunicate  anyone  that  tries  to  take 
it  away  from  her.  So  that  is  clear."  Mark  Twain  was 
also  distressed  because  Mrs.  Eddy  perverted  the  Scripture 
text  she  used  in  her  telegram  (which  reads,  in  Luke  1 :53, 
*'and  the  rich  hath  he  sent  empty  away")  and  marveled 
that  this  perversion  *'in  that  massed  convention  of  trained 
Christians  created  no  astonishment,  since  it  caused  no 
remark,  and  the  business  of  the  convention  went  tran- 
quilly   on,    thereafter,    as    if   nothing    had   happened. "^ 

It  stands  indelibly  written  in  her  own  writings,  however, 
that  she  did  make  all  these  claims  to  divine  inspiration  and 
equality  with  Jesus,  if  not  with  God,  and  did  adopt  and 
use  the  name  "Mother  Mary,"  and  forbade  others  to 
use  it  under  pain  of  excommunication,  and  her  subsequent 
denial  of  these  claims  is  only  one  more  instance  of  her 
inveracity,  proved  out  of  her  own  mouth. 

1  Mark  Twain,  Christian  Science,  pp.  331-342. 


CHAPTER  VI 
•'SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  THE  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK 

It  is  difficult  to  give  a  condensed  summary  of  the 
contents  of  *'Science  and  Health"  because  of  the  lack  of 
order  and  system  in  its  arrangement  and  in  its  ideas. 
The  chapters  themselves  have  several  times  been  shifted 
around  in  a  different  order,  and  they  might  be  shuffled 
again  without  any  loss  of  logic.  The  very  titles  of  the 
chapters  sometimes  have  little  aptness  as  designations 
of  their  contents.  The  order  of  the  paragraphs  in  the 
chapters  also  follows  no  inherent  plan  and  progress  and 
frequently  baffles  the  reader  to  find  and  follow  any  thread 
of  connection.  There  are  only  a  few  fundamental  ideas 
in  the  book,  and  these  are  endlessly  iterated  and  reiterated 
until  one's  sense  of  interest  and  attention  is  dulled  into 
drowsiness:  reading  the  book  is  like  listening  to  a  player 
on  a  violin  who  keeps  sawing  on  one  string  and  making 
few  variations  on  that.  One  really  has  to  maintain  a 
firm  grip  on  his  attention  to  keep  from  falling  into  a  stupor 
while  perusing  these  monotonous  pages.  The  style  is 
trying  enough  because  of  its  peculiar  lingo  and  its  frequent 
obscurity,  although  there  are  passages  of  clear  English 
and  here  and  there  a  purple  patch  of  fine  writing,  some  of 
these  patches,  however,  being  affected  and  stilted  to  a 
degree.  Of  course,  also,  there  is  much  truth  in  the  book, 
even  fundamental  truth  and  wholesome  teaching,  wheat 
in  its  chaff,  grains  of  gold  in  its  sand,  and  this  will  be 

102 


"SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH" :  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK    103 

brought  out  later.  The  present  purpose,  however,  is 
to  seize  the  principal  points  in  each  chapter  and  illustrate 
them  with  brief  quotations.  There  is  danger,  it  is  true, 
in  making  such  quotations  of  tearing  them  out  of  their 
context  so  as  to  pervert  their  meaning,  but  the  author 
will  guard  against  this  tendency  and  will  endeavor 
only  to  let  Mrs.  Eddy  express  her  ideas  in  her  own  way. 

1.   PRAYER 

The  book  starts  abruptly  in  the  middle  of  things 
with  seventeen  pages  of  rambling  remarks  and  paragraphs 
on  prayer,  with  little  apparent  continuity  and  progression. 
The  point  most  frequently  mentioned  and  strongly  em- 
phasized is  that  prayer  is  a  subjective  state  which  is  not 
helped  but  hindered  by  audible  expression  and  that  its 
value  is  purely  its  reflex  and  subjective  influence.  "Audi- 
ble prayer  is  impressive;  it  gives  momentary  solemnity 
and  elevation  to  thought.  But  does  it  produce  any 
lasting  benefit?  Looking  deeply  into  these  things,  we  find 
that  *a  zeal  not  according  to  knowledge'  gives  occasion 
for  reaction  unfavorable  to  spiritual  growth,  sober  resolve, 
and  wholesome  perception  of  God*s  requirements."  The 
reader  is  therefore  told  that  *'lips  must  be  silent  and 
materialism  silent,"  and  that  "we  must  close  the  lips 
and  silence  the  materialistic  senses."  In  accordance  with 
this  teaching  only  silent  prayer  is  engaged  in  at  Christian 
Science  services,  with  the  exception  of  the  repetition  of 
The  Lord's  Prayer  together  with  Mrs.  Eddy's  inter- 
pretation of  it. 

It  is  expressly  declared  that  "God  is  not  influenced 
by  man,"  and  that  "prayer  cannot  change  the  Science 
of  being,  but  it  tends  to  bring  us  into  harmony  with  it." 


104        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

The  usual  obsession  as  to  the  nonreahty  of  matter  and 
sin  runs  through  the  chapter.  In  praying  "we  must 
deny  sin  and  plead  God's  allness,"  and  yet  sin  is  also 
constantly  spoken  of  as  a  reality. 

The  chapter  concludes  with  Mrs.  Eddy's  interpretation 
which  she  says  she  understands  *'to  be  the  spiritual  sense 
of  The  Lord's  Prayer."  It  is  here  given  as  it  stands 
in  the  1916  edition  of  the  book,  but  an  entirely  different 
version  of  her  interpretation  appeared  in  earlier  editions 
of  the  same  book. 


Our  Father  which  art  in  heaven. 

Our  Father- Mother  God,  all-harmonious. 
Hallowed  be  thy  name. 

Adorable  One. 
Thy  kingdom  come. 

Thy  kingdom  come:    Thou  art  ever-present. 
Thy  will  be  done  in  earth,  as  it  is  in  heaven. 

Enable  us  to  know,  as  in  heaven,  so  on  earth, — God  is  omnip- 
otent, supreme. 
Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread. 

Give  us  grace  for  to-day;  feed  the  famished  affections. 
And  forgive  lis  our  debts,  as  we  forgive  our  debtors. 

And  Love  is  reflected  in  love; 
And  lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil; 

And  God  leadeth  us  not  into  temptation,  but  delivereth  us 
from  sin,  disease,  and  death. 
For  thine  is  the  kingdom,  and  the  power,  and  the  glory, 
for  ever. 

For  God  is  infinite,  all-power,  all  Life,  Truth,  Love,  over  all, 
and  All. 

2.  ATONEMENT  AND  EUCHARIST 

This  chapter  extends  to  thirty-eight  pages,  but  very 
little  of  it  relates  either  to  the  atonement  or  the  Eucharist. 
In  reading  these  pages  one  soon  gets  the  impression  that 
one  chapter  runs  without  change  of  subject  into  another 
and  that  all  are  cut  from  the  same  cloth.     The  reader  is 


"SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK    105 

told  at  once  that  ''the  atonement  of  Christ  reconciles  man 
to  God,  not  God  to  man;  for  the  divine  Principle  of  Christ 
is  God,  and  how  can  God  propitiate  himself?"  The 
chapter  never  gets  beyond  the  subjective  influence  of  the 
atonement,  or  the  moral  influence  theory  of  it.  "The 
atonement  is  a  hard  problem  in  theology,  but  its  scientific 
explanation  is,  that  suffering  is  an  error  of  sinful  sense 
which  Truth  destroys,  and  eventually  both  sin  and 
suffering  will  fall  at  the  feet  of  everlasting  love."  The 
atonement  is  indeed  *'a  hard  problem  in  theology,"  but 
no  light  is  imparted  in  the  statement  that  "suffering  is  an 
error  of  sinful  sense,"  when  the  reality  of  both  "suffering" 
and  "sinful  sense"  is  denied  and  these  are  declared  to  be 
"nothing."  "Divine  Science  reveals  the  necessity  of 
sufficient  suffering,  either  before  or  after  death,  to  quench 
the  love  of  sin.  To  remit  the  penalty  due  for  sin,  would 
be  for  Truth  to  pardon  error."  It  is  puzzHng  to  know 
how  there  can  be  a  "necessity  of  sufficient  suffering" 
when  "suffering"  is  "nothing";  and  the  reader  may  be 
satisfied  with  the  orthodoxy  of  the  statement  that  "to 
remit  the  penalty  due  for  sin,  would  be  for  Truth  to 
pardon  error"  until  one  remembers  that  both  "penalty" 
and  "sin"  are  "dreams"  of  "mortal  mind."  Mrs.  Eddy 
has  the  courage  of  her  convictions  when  she  declares  that 
"the  universal  belief  in  death  is  of  no  advantage,"  and 
that  "death  will  be  found  at  length  to  be  a  mortal  dream, 
which  comes  in  darkness  and  disappears  with  the  light." 
As  soon  as  we  quit  believing  in  death,  death  itself  will 
cease. 

The  Eucharist  which  Christian  Scientists  observe  is  not 
the  Lord's  Supper  which  Jesus  instituted  with  his  disciples 
on  the  evening  before  his  crucifixion,  but  is  the  "morning 


106         THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

meal"  at  which  he  was  present  with  his  disciples  on  the 
shore  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee  after  his  resurrection.  The 
disciples,  it  will  be  recalled,  had  spent  a  night  of  fruitless 
toil  in  fishing  on  the  lake  when  Jesus  appeared  on  the 
shore  and  called  to  them  to  cast  the  net  on  the  right  side 
of  the  boat,  and  then  they  drew  the  net  up  swollen  full. 
Here  is  Mrs.  Eddy's  account  and  interpretation  of  this 
incident: 


Convinced  of  the  fruitlessness  of  their  toil  in  the  dark  and  wakened 
by  their  Master's  voice,  they  changed  their  methods,  turned  away 
from  material  things,  and  cast  their  net  on  the  right  side.  Dis- 
cerning Christ.  Truth,  anew  on  the  shore  of  time,  they  were  enabled 
to  rise  somewhat  from  mortal  sensuousness,  or  the  burial  of  mind  in 
matter,  into  newness  of  life  as  Spirit.  This  spiritual  meeting  with 
our  Lord  in  the  dawn  of  the  new  light  is  the  morning  meal  which 
Christian  Scientists  commemorate. 


This  is  a  characteristic  instance  of  the  way  in  which 
Mrs.  Eddy  handles  Scripture.  She  frequently  quotes  it, 
but  often  there  is  no  remotest  connection  between  her 
* 'science"  and  her  Scripture  * 'proof."  Out  of  any  text 
she  extracts  the  most  fanciful  or  fantastic  meaning  that 
suits  her  purpose,  or  rather  she  blandly  attributes  such  a 
meaning  to  a  text.  The  simple  act  of  casting  the  net  on 
the  right  side  of  the  boat  is  made  to  mean  that  the  dis- 
ciples * 'turned  away  from  material  things"  and  "were 
enabled  to  rise  somewhat  from  mortal  sensuousness,  or 
the  burial  of  mind  in  matter,  into  newness  of  life  as 
Spirit."  According  to  this  method  of  exegesis,  anything 
can  mean  anything  and  all  is  indeed  a  "dream,"  it  may 
be  of  "mortal  mind,"  but  certainly  not  of  a  rational  mind. 

The    chapter    concludes    with    another    characteristic 


'SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH" :  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK     107 

misuse  and  perversion  of  Scripture,  as  follows:  *'In  the 
words  of  Saint  John:  *He  shall  give  you  another  Com- 
forter, that  he  may  abide  with  you  forever.'  This  Com- 
forter I  understand  to  be  divine  Science"! 


3.  MARRIAGE 

This  chapter  contains  fourteen  pages,  much  of  it  having 
no  connection  with  its  subject,  but  frequently  slipping 
into  the  obsession  that  *'we  must  not  attribute  more  and 
more  intelligence  to  matter,  but  less  and  less,  if  we  would 
be  wise  and  healthy."  This  notion  that  everybody, 
except  Christian  Scientists,  does  "attribute  intelligence 
to  matter"  runs  all  through  these  pages  and  receives 
endless  repetition,  whereas  of  course  nobody,  except  an 
occasional  crass  materialist,  does  anything  of  the  kind. 
This  is  only  another  instance  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  ignorance 
of  what  she  is  talking  about. 

Many  good  sentiments  are  expressed  in  this  chapter 
as  to  the  relation  of  husband  and  wife.  "Kindred  tastes, 
natures,  and  aspirations  are  necessary  to  the  formation 
of  a  happy  and  permanent  companionship."  Divorce  is 
discouraged,  and  "mutual  compromises  will  often  maintain 
a  compact  which  otherwise  might  become  unbearable." 
"Both  sexes  should  be  loving,  pure,  tender,  and  strong." 
"The  entire  education  of  children  should  be  such  as  to 
form  habits  of  obedience  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  law, 
with  which  the  child  can  meet  and  master  the  belief  in 
so-called  physical  laws,  a  belief  which  breeds  disease." 
But  again  she  is  slipping  into  her  obsession,  which  she 
can  hardly  avoid  for  a  single  paragraph.  Children  are 
to  be  deliberately  taught   that   there   is   no   such  thing 


108      THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

as  "physical  laws,"  and  this  falsehood  is  to  be  crammed 
into  them  in  their  earliest  education.  ^ 

Mrs.  Eddy's  peculiar  view  as  to  the  marriage  relation 
appears  in  the  very  first  paragraph  of  this  chapter  and 
runs  as  a  subtle  undertone  all  through  it.  She  begins  by 
quoting  what  Jesus  said  to  John  the  Baptist  in  relation 
to  his  own  baptism:  "Suffer  it  now:  for  thus  it  becometh 
us  to  fulfil  all  righteousness."  Her  inference  (and,  as 
usual,  a  false  one)  from  this  passage  is:  "Jesus'  concessions 
(in  certain  cases)  to  material  methods  were  for  the  advance- 
ment of  spiritual  good."  The  point  of  this  inference  is 
that  marriage  is  only  a  temporary  arrangement  to  be 
regarded  only  as  long  as  we  believe  in  "mortal  mind"  and 
is  to  be  cast  aside  as  soon  as  we  rise  above  this  delusion. 
"The  human  mind  will  at  length  demand  a  higher  affec- 
tion," and  "there  will  ensue  a  fermentation  over  this  as 
over  many  other  reforms."  These  views  run  through  the 
chapter,  and  they  are  specifically  set  forth  in  the  following 
paragraphs : 


Marriage  is  the  legal  and  moral  provision  for  generation  among 
human  kind.  Until  the  spiritual  creation  is  discerned  intact,  is 
apprehended  and  understood,  and  his  kingdom  is  come  as  in  the 
vision  of  the  Apocalypse — where  the  corporeal  sense  of  creation  was 
cast  out,  and  its  spiritual  sense  was  revealed  from  heaven — marriage 
will  continue,  subject  to  such  moral  regulations  as  will  secure  in- 
creasing virtue.  .  .  Until  it  is  learned  that  God  is  the  Father  of  all, 
marriage  will  continue.  .  .  Beholding  the  world's  lack  of  Chris- 
tianity and  the  powerlessness  of  vows  to  make  home  happy,  the 
human  mind  will  at  length  demand  a  higher  affection.  There  will 
ensue  a  fermentation  over  this  as  over  many  other  reforms,  until  we 
get  at  last  the  clear  straining  of  truth,  and  impurity  and  error  are  left 

1  A  pastor  told  the  author  that  when  visiting  in  a  Christian  Science 
home  he  heard  a  little  girl,  who  was  suffering  with  a  severe  cold, 
when  asked  how  she  was,  gasp  out  with  choking  voice,  "There  is  no 
matter,  God  is  love." 


''SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK    109 

among  the  lees.  The  fermentation  even  of  fluids  is  not  pleasant. 
An  unsettled,  transitional  stage  is  never  desirable  on  its  own  account. 
Matrimony,  which  was  once  a  fixed  fact  among  us,  must  lose  its 
present  slippery  footing,  and  man  must  find  permanence  and  peace 
in  a  more  spiritual  adherence.  .  .  Proportionately  as  human 
generation  ceases,  the  unbroken  links  of  eternal,  harmonious  being 
will  be  spiritually  discerned. 

These  statements  are  vague  and  *'slippery,"  but  their 
meaning  is  reasonably  clear.  Marriage  is  a  legal  and  moral 
temporary  provision,  which  must  be  tolerated  for  the 
present  because  we  have  not  yet  learned  that  *'God  is  the 
Father  of  all,"  and  because  of  our  *'lack  of  Christianity," 
but  when  we  attain  to  this  through  Mrs.  Eddy's  * 'Science" 
and  know  that  she  herself  is  the  "woman"  in  the  vision 
of  the  Apocalypse,"!  then  *'the  human  mind  will  demand  a 
higher  affection.  .  .  Matrimony,  which  was  once  a  fixed 
fact  among  us,  must  lose  its  present  slippery  footing,  and 
man  must  find  permanence  and  peace  in  a  more  spiritual 
adherence."  In  a  word,  marriage  must  go!  This  "reform" 
will  be  attended  with  "fermentation"  and  "fermentation 
is  not  pleasant,"  but  despite  the  trouble  of  getting  rid  of 
it,  marriage  must  go!  It  "was  once  a  fixed  fact  among 
us,"  but  already  it  is  growing  fluid  and  will  presently 
evaporate  into  "a  more  spiritual  adherence."  It  is  to 
be  understood  that  all  this  does  not  refer  to  any  future 
spiritual  world,  but  to  the  world  that  now  is  when  freed 
from  "mortal  mind"  by  "Christian  Science."  Marriage 
will  then  be  done  with  and  people  will  form  "a  more 
spiritual  adherence." 

It  will  not  be  difficult  for  some  of  the  votaries  of  this 
doctrine  to  believe  that  they  already  know  that  "God 
is  the  Father  of  all"  and  that  therefore  they  are  ready  to 

1  See  page  98. 


110        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

discard  this  **once  fixed  fact  among  us"  and  form  this 
"more  spiritual  adherence."  In  fact,  it  is  only  a  step 
from  the  belief  in  this  doctrine  to  the  practice  of  free 
love.  Mrs.  Eddy  discouraged  marriage  among  her  follow- 
ers, though  she  practiced  it  hberally  herself,  and  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  she  gives  some  good  advice  on  the  subject 
of  marriage  in  this  chapter,  she  yet  lays  the  ax  at  the 
very  root  of  the  tree. 

4.  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  VERSUS  SPIRITUALISM 

Of  the  one  hundred  and  seventeen  paragraphs  in  this 
chapter  only  forty -eight  can  be  held  to  refer  even  remotely 
to  spiritualism.  The  first  paragraph  assures  the  reader 
that  *'the  testimony  of  the  corporeal  senses  cannot  inform 
us  what  is  real  and  what  is  delusive,  but  the  revelations 
of  Christian  Science  unlock  the  treasures  of  Truth."  The 
main  contention  running  through  all  these  paragraphs  is 
the  wearisome  repetition  of  the  obsession  that  "suffering, 
sinning,  dying  beliefs  are  unreal." 

In  the  fifth  paragraph  of  the  chapter  Mrs.  Eddy  at- 
tempts to  indulge  in  a  little  reasoning  to  support  her  main 
contention,  something  that  seldom  occurs  in  these  pages 
of  pure  dogmatic  assertion.  The  paragraph  runs  as 
follows : 

Close  your  eyes,  and  you  may  dream  that  you  see  a  flower — that 
you  touch  and  smell  it.  Thus  you  learn  that  the  flower  is  a  product 
of  the  so-called  mind,  a  formation  of  thought  rather  than  of  matter. 
Close  your  eyes  again,  and  you  may  see  landscapes,  men,  and 
women.  Thus  you  learn  that  these  also  are  images,  which  mortal 
mind  holds  and  evolves  and  which  simulate  mind,  life,  and  intelli- 
gence. From  dreams  also  you  learn  that  neither  mortal  mind  nor 
matter  is  the  image  or  likeness  of  God,  and  that  immortal  Mind  is 
not  matter. 


"SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK    111 

Thus  Mrs.  Eddy  confuses  and  identifies  images  of  the 
imagination,  or  images  that  we  "dream,"  with  memory 
images  which  are  revived  impressions  made  on  the  senses 
by  external  objects,  a  radical  distinction  that  can  be 
tested  and  proved  and  refuses  to  yield  to  Mrs.  Eddy's 
claim  that  all  our  ideas  are  wholly  the  product  of  "mortal 
mind.'* 

As  to  the  subject  of  the  chapter,  Mrs.  Eddy  says,  "I 
never  could  believe  in  spiritualism,"  yet  that  she  did 
both  believe  in  and  practice  it  in  her  early  years  is  es- 
tablished by  indisputable  evidence.  ^  Her  reason  for 
rejecting  spirit  communications  is  that  spirits  could 
not  enter  into  relations  with  mortal  minds,  for  this  would 
mix  mind  and  matter,  which  are  irreconcilable,  being 
"opposite  dreams."  "No  correspondence  nor  communion 
can  exist  between  persons  in  such  opposite  dreams  as 
the  belief  of  having  died  and  left  a  material  body  and  the 
belief  of  still  living  in  an  organic,  material  body."  The 
condition  of  the  dead  is  repeatedly  spoken  of  in  this 
chapter  as  being  also  a  "dream'*  state.  The  very  idea 
of  death  is  a  dream.  "When  you  can  waken  yourself 
out  of  the  belief  that  all  must  die,  you  can  then  exercise 
Jesus*  spiritual  power  to  reproduce  the  presence  of  those 
who  have  thought  they  have  died — but  not  otherwise." 
Here  it  appears  that  the  dead  are  still  laboring  under  a 
delusion,  they  "have  thought  they  have  died." 

In  the  midst  of  this  chapter  there  are  inserted  five 
"postulates'*  which  are  equally  the  postulates  of  all  the 
chapters  of  this  book  and  may  be  taken  as  the  funda- 
mentals  of   Christian   Science.     They  are   as  follows: 

1  Page  30. 


112        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Certain  erroneous  postulates  should  be  here  considered  in  order 
that  the  spiritual  facts  may  be  better  apprehended. 

The  first  erroneous  postulate  of  belief  is,  that  substance,  life,  and 
intelligence  are  something  apart  from  God.  .    ,      , 

The  second  erroneous  postulate  is,  that  man  is  both  mental  and 

material.  .     ,  .    ,      ,        •■,       j         j 

The  third  erroneous  postulate  is,  that  mind  is  both  evil  and  good; 
whereas  the  real  mind  cannot  be  evil  nor  the  medium  of  evil,  for 
mind  is  God.  .    .       ,,.  , 

The  fourth  erroneous  postulate  is,  that  matter  is  intelligent,  and 
that  man  has  a  material  body  which  is  part  of  himself.  .     . 

The  fifth  erroneous  postulate  is,  that  matter  holds  in  itself  the 
issues  of  life  and  death— that  matter  is  not  only  capable  of  ex- 
periencing pleasure  and  pain,  but  also  capable  of  imparting  these 
sensations.  From  the  illusions  implied  in  this  last  postulate  arises 
the  decomposition  of  mortal  bodies  in  what  is  termed  death. 

Let  it  be  noted  that  mind  is  God  and  that  there  are  no 
substance,  life,  and  intelhgence  apart  from  God,  and  this 
fact  is  the  fundamental  pantheism  of  Christian  Science. 
We  are  frequently  told  that  man  is  only  an  "idea"  or  a 
^'reflection"  of  God  and  has  no  existence  apart  from  God. 
Let  it  also  be  noted  that  ^'pleasure"  as  well  as  "pain"  is 
an  experience  of  "mortal  mind"  and  is  a  delusion  to  be 
got  rid  of.  All  knowledge  derived  through  or  suggested 
by  our  senses  is  to  become  "extinct,"  and  the  perfect 
state  of  Christian  Science  appears  to  be  one  of  pure 
passive  unconsciousness  in  which  the  human  soul  is  merged 
in  God  as  raindrops  in  the  sea. 

S.  ANIMAL  MAGNETISM  UNMASKED 

In  this  chapter  Mrs.  Eddy  deals  with  her  deepest 
obsession,  the  evil  power  of  one  "mortal  mind"  over 
another,  which,  developed  into  a  veritable  devil  in  her 
household  and  got  into  her  kitchen  utensils  and  stopped 
up  her  drain  pipes  and  involved  her  in  ever  so  many 
quarrels  and  lawsuits  and  became  the  Satan  of  her  religion. 


"SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH" :  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK    113 

The  brief  chapter  of  seven  pages  opens  with  a  reference 
to  "Mesmerism  in  Germany  in  1775,"  and  mixed  into  it 
is  the  usual  proportion  of  matter  that  gets  off  from  the 
subject  as  announced  in  the  title  and  reverts  to  the  per- 
petual obsession  that  *'in  reality  there  is  no  mortal  mind, 
and  consequently  no  transference  of  mortal  thought  and 
will-power,"  which  is  a  downright  contradiction  of  the 
teaching  of  the  chapter  that  "mortal  mind"  is  a  "mur- 
derer." "As  named  in  Christian  Science,  animal  magnet- 
ism or  hypnotism  is  the  specific  term  for  error,  or  mortal 
mind."  Here  "animal  magnetism"  is  identified  with 
"hypnotism"  and  both  of  these  with  "mortal  mind." 
These  definitions  are  confusing.  And  anyhow,  how  can 
there  be  any  "animal  magnetism"  when  there  isn't  any 
"animal".'^  Sometimes  one  thinks  one  knows  what 
"mortal  mind"  is  and  then  again  one  is  given  a  jolt  and 
finds  he  is  wrong.  In  the  "Glossary"  of  this  book  "Mortal 
Mind"  is  defined  as  "Nothing  claiming  to  be  something," 
and  then  follows  a  series  of  definitions  extending  to  a  dozen 
lines  in  which  it  is  said  to  be  all  sorts  of  things,  chiefly 
certain  "beliefs."  Now  it  turns  out  to  be  "hypnotism," 
which  is  defined  by  Webster  as  "a  state  resembling  sleep." 
But  whatever  it  is  or  it  is  not,  "mortal  mind"  is  capable 
of  doing  things,  for  we  are  asked:  "Is  it  not  clear  that  the 
human  mind  must  move  the  body  to  a  wicked  act? 
Is  not  mortal  mind  the  murderer.'^  The  hands,  without 
mortal  mind  to  direct  them,  could  not  commit  murder." 
It  is  not  clear  how  all  this  can  be  done  when  both  "the 
hands"  and  "mortal  mind"  are  "nothing  claiming  to  be 
something." 

In  this  chapter  Mrs.  Eddy  endeavors  to  make  it  out  that 
the    courts    should    exercise    jurisdiction    over    "mortal 


114        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

mind."  **To  say  that  these  tribunals  have  no  juris- 
diction over  the  carnal  or  mortal  mind,  would  be  to  con- 
tradict precedent  and  to  admit  that  the  power  of  human 
law  is  restricted  to  matter,  while  mortal  mind,  evil, 
which  is  the  real  outlaw,  defies  justice  and  is  recommended 
to  mercy.  .  .  Mortal  mind,  not  matter,  is  the  criminal 
in  every  case."  It  will  be  recalled  how  she  was  implicated 
in  bringing  suit  against  Daniel  H.  Spofford  on  the  ground 
that  he  had  exercised  the  *'malicious  animal  magnetism" 
of  "mortal  mind"  against  one  of  her  students  and  thereby 
she  endeavored  to  revive  the  principle  and  spirit  of  trial 
for  witchcraft  in  Salem,  Mass.l  The  judge  dismissed 
the  case  "with  a  smile,"  but  if  it  had  succeeded  it  would 
have  been  a  reversion  to  one  of  the  most  fearful  delusions 
that  ever  cursed  the  world. 


6.  SCIENCE,  THEOLOGY,  MEDICINE 

This  chapter  extends  to  fifty-eight  pages  and  is  divided 
into  three  sections  with  the  three  title  words  of  the  chapter 
as  subheads,  but  the  divisions  have  little  to  do  with  the 
substance  of  the  thought,  which  runs  on  in  the  same 
general  stream  of  intermingled  and  confused  ideas. 

In  this  chapter  there  is  a  statement  of  "the  fundamental 
propositions  of  divine  methaphysics,"  which  Mrs.  Eddy 
says,  *'are  summarized  in  the  four  following,  to  me,  self- 
evident  propositions.  Even  if  reversed,  these  propositions 
will  be  found  to  agree  in  statement  and  proof,  showing 
mathematically  their  exact  relation  to  Truth.  De  Quin- 
cey   says    that    mathematics   has  not   a  foot   to   stand 

1  Page  45. 


••SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK    115 

upon  which   is   not   purely   methaphysical."     The    four 
propositions  are  as  follows: 


1.  God  is  All-in-all. 

2.  God  is  good.     Good  is  Mind. 

3.  God,  Spirit,  being  all,  nothing  is  matter. 

4.  Life,  God,  omnipotent  good,  deny  death,  evil,  sin,  disease 
Disease,  sin,  evil,  death,  deny  good,  omnipotent  God,  Life. 


Much  is  made  by  Christian  Scientists  of  this  "reversion" 
as  a  "proof"  of  these  propositions.  It  is  said  tnat  they 
read  backward. just  as  well  as  forward,  but  this  is  a  mere 
verbal  device  and  claim  and  has  no  logical  value.  It 
is  one  of  those  neat  little  rhetorical  contrivances  that 
please  childish  minds.  It  may  also  be  said  that  these 
propositions  are  not  the  only  sentences  in  this  book  that 
may  be  read  backward  as  well  as  forward. 

As  to  the  four  self-evident  propositions,  they  are  dog- 
matic assertions  that  appeal  to  those  to  whom  they  appeal. 
The  first  one,  "God  is  All-in-all,"  together  with  its  re- 
version, "All-in-all  is  God,"  is  pantheism  pure  and  simple. 
The  second  proposition  is  not  strictly  reversible,  for 
"good"  in  the  first  form  is  an  adjective  or  attribute,  and 
has  to  be  turned  into  a  noun  or  substance  in  the  second 
form.  The  fourth  proposition  uses  the  word  "deny" 
in  the  sense  of  "destroy"  or  "annihilate"  "death,  evil, 
sin,  disease,"  and  in  this  sense  the  proposition,  when 
"reversed,"  is  not  true  even  according  to  Christian 
Science,  for  surely  death  and  sin  do  not  destroy  "om- 
nipotent God." 

In  this  chapter  is  given  a  more  specific  statement  of 
how  Christian  Science  heals  disease.  It  is  denied  in 
this  chapter  and  throughout  the  book  that  this  system 


116        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

heals  by  mental  suggestion  or  Human  will  power  or  by  any 
form  of  faith  cure.  ''Human  will-power  is  not  science. 
Human  will  belongs  to  the  so-called  material  senses, 
and  its  use  is  to  be  condemned.  Willing  the  sick  to 
recover  is  not  the  metaphysical  practice  of  Christian 
Science,  but  is  sheer  animal  magnetism."  In  the  Preface 
we  may  read:  *'They  [mental  healers]  regard  the  human 
mind  as  a  healing  agent,  whereas  this  mind  is  not  a  factor 
in  the  principle  of  Christian  Science."  Healing  is  gen- 
erally attributed  to  Mind,  which  word,  when  capitalized, 
always  means  God.  It  is  the  mere  knowledge  of  or 
belief  in  this  Mind  that  heals  disease,  and  not  any  faith 
or  action  of  the  human  mind  itself. 

And  yet  the  action  of  the  human  mind  in  healing  is 
frequently  emphasized.  The  Christian  Science  practi- 
tioner is  told  to  "deny"  disease,  and  the  patient  is  urged  to 
do  the  same  thing.  Healing  by  "argument"  is  explicitly 
explained  on  page  412.  When  a  child  falls  on  the  carpet 
and  "thinks  she  has  hurt  her  face,"  the  mother  is  told  to 
say  to  it,  "Oh,  never  mind!  You're  not  hurt,  so  don't 
think  you  are."  On  the  same  page  (153)  where  this 
precious  advice  is  given,  we  are  told:  "The  human  mind 
acts  more  powerfully  to  offset  the  discords  of  matter 
and  the  ills  of  the  flesh,  in  proportion  as  it  puts  less  weight 
into  the  material  or  fleshly  scale  and  more  weight  into  the 
spiritual  scale."  Mrs.  Eddy  in  spite  of  her  denials  that 
her  system  is  one  of  faith  cure  frequently  makes  statements 
and  uses  illustrations  that  imply  the  action  of  the  human 
mind  and  the  faith  cure  principle  in  the  healing  of  disease. 
"It  is  related,"  she  says,  "that  Sir  Humphrey  Davy 
once  apparently  cured  a  case  of  paralysis  simply  by  in- 
troducing   a    thermometer    into    the    patient's    mouth. 


^'SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK    117 

This  lie  did  merely  to  ascertain  the  temperature  of  the 
patient's  body;  but  the  sick  man  supposed  this  ceremony 
was  intended  to  heal  him,  and  he  recovered  accordingly. 
Such  a  fact  illustrates  our  theories/'  It  does  indeed, 
and  this  method  is  the  real  principle  and  virtue  of  Christian 
Science. 

Mrs.  Eddy  constantly  confuses  subjective  experiences 
with  objective  causes.     For  example: 

You  say  a  boil  is  painful;  but  that  is  impossible,  for  matter  without 
mind  is  not  painful.  The  boil  simply  manifests,  through  inflam- 
mation and  swelling,  a  belief  in  pain,  and  this  belief  is  called  a  boil. 
Now  administer  mentally  to  your  patient  a  high  attenuation  of 
truth,  and  it  will  soon  cure  the  boil.  The  fact  that  pain  cannot 
exist  where  there  is  no  mortal  mind  to  feel  it  is  proof  that  this 
so-called  mind  makes  its  own  pain — that  is,  its  own  belief  in  pain. 

It  is  true  enough  that  pain  cannot  exist  where  there  is 
no  mind  to  experience  it,  but  there  is  an  objective  cause 
for  the  pain,  and  that  objective  cause  is  the  real  boil.  It 
is  just  at  this  point  that  Mrs.  Eddy  misses  and  perverts 
the  position  of  philosophical  idealism,  as  held  by  Berkeley, 
and  that  her  system  goes  to  pieces  on  the  rock  of  objective 
reality. 

7.  PHYSIOLOGY 

This  chapter  of  thirty-six  pages  may  be  summarized 
in  one  of  its  sentences:  *'Mind  has  no  affinity  with  matter, 
and  therefore  Truth  is  able  to  cast  out  the  ills  of  the  flesh," 
a  sentence  that  equally  summarizes  all  these  chapters. 
The  first  sentence  says  that  "Physiology  is  one  of  the 
apples  from  *the  tree  of  knowledge,'  *'  or  forbidden  fruit 
which  brought  death  into  our  world  and  all  its  woe.  All 
through  the  chapter  anatomy,  physiology,  hygiene,  the 


118       THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

laws  of  health,  food,  "flesh-brush,  flannels,  bath,  diet, 
exercise,  and  air,"  are  excommunicated  as  the  real  "mortal 
mind'*  and  the  true  cause  of  disease.  The  usual  self- 
contradictions  and  amazing  assertions  are  plentiful. 
"What  is  termed  disease  does  not  exist.  It  is  neither 
mind  nor  matter."  This  is  mystifying,  for  over  and  over 
again  Mrs.  Eddy  says  that  disease  is  a  form  or  delusion 
of  "mortal  mind"  and  that  "mortal  mind"  is  "matter." 
Now  the  follower  of  Christian  Science  is  told  that  disease 
is  "neither  mind  nor  matter."  "Disease  does  not  exist," 
and  yet  on  the  same  page  is  the  statement  that  "sickness 
is  a  growth  of  error,"  and  "what  causes  disease  cannot 
cure  it."  What  has  "no  existence"  is  yet  a  "growth" 
and  something  "causes"  it. 

Among  the  contradictions  in  this  chapter  is  the  usual 
way  of  speaking  of  the  natural  sciences  in  one  place  as 
real  and  in  another  place  as  having  no  existence. 
"Through  astronomy,  natural  history,  chemistry,  music, 
mathematics,  thought  passes  naturally  from  effect  back 
to  cause,"  and  yet  "the  so-called  laws  of  matter  are  nothing 
but  false  beliefs,"  and  "treatises  on  anatomy,  physiology, 
and  health,  sustained  by  what  is  termed  material  law, 
are  the  promoters  of  sickness  and  disease."  On  one  page 
"faith  in  drugs  begets  and  fosters  disease,"  and  on  another 
page  "mortal  belief  is  all  that  enables  a  drug  to  cure  mortal 
ailments,"  which  after  all  admits  that  a  drug  can  cure. 

Marvelous  things  are  brought  to  light  in  this  chapter. 
"Our  ancestors.  .  .  were  innocent  as  Adam,  before  he 
ate  the  fruit  of  false  knowledge,  of  the  existence  of  lungs" — 
they  did  not  know  they  had  any  lungs  and  therefore  they 
really  had  none!  We  have  them  simply  because  we  believe 
we  have  them.     The  blacksmith's  strong  arm  is  not  due 


"SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK    119 

to  his  exercise  of  it,  but  to  "the  blacksmith's  faith  in 
exercise."  The  hammer  that  he  wields  **is  not  increased 
in  size  by  exercise,"  "because  nobody  believes  that  mind 
is  producing  such  a  result  on  the  hammer."  If  the 
blacksmith  only  believed  it,  his  hammer  would  grow  along 
with  his  muscle!  Even  horses  appear  to  be  subject  to 
Christian  Science  principles,  for  "you  can  even  educate  a 
healthy  horse  so  far  in  physiology  that  he  will  take  cold 
without  his  blanket,  whereas  the  wild  animal,  left  to  his 
instincts,  sniffs  the  wind  with  delight.  The  epizootic  is 
a  humanly  evolved  ailment,  which  a  wild  horse  might 
never  have."  This,  however,  is  but  the  beginning  of 
wonders.  Mrs.  Eddy  claimed  that  she  "had  caused  an 
apple  tree  to  blossom  in  January,"  one  of  her  followers 
reported  in  the  Christian  Science  Journal  that  her  dog 
had  been  bitten  by  a  rattlesnake  and  she  "was  able  to 
demonstrate  over  the  belief  in  four  days.  The  dog  is 
now  as  well  as  ever,"  and  another  follower  was  able  to 
cure  a  sick  horse  by  saying  to  it  "in  an  audible  voice,  *You 
are  God's  horse.  You  cannot  overeat,  have  colic,  or  be 
foundered.'     At  noon  he  was  all  right."i 

It  is  not  simply  individual  belief  but  the  social  behef 
of  mortal  mind  that  produces  disease  and  evil. 

If  a  dose  of  poison  is  swallowed  through  mistake,  and  the  patient 
dies  even  though  physician  and  patient  are  expecting  favorable 
results,  does  human  belief,  you  ask,  cause  this  death?  Even  so,  and 
as  directly  as  if  the  poison  had  been  intentionally  taken.  In  such 
cases  a  few  persons  believe  the  poison  swallowed  by  the  patient  to  be 
harmless,  but  the  vast  majority  of  mankind,  though  they  know 
nothing  of  this  particular  case  and  this  special  person,  believe  the 
arsenic,  the  strychnine,  or  whatever  the  drug  used,  to  be  poisonous, 
for  it  is  set  down  as  a  poison  by  mortal  mind.  Consequently,  the 
result  is  controlled  by  the  majority  of  opinions,  not  by  the  in- 
finitesimal minority  of  opinions  in  the  sick-chamber. 

1  Milmine,   History,  pp.  186,  320,  372. 


120        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

The  general  social  mind  is  thus  turned  into  a  collective 
demon  creating  disease  and  sowing  the  world  with  evil. 
It  appears  from  this  that  healing  does  not  depend  on 
individual  faith,  even  of  Christian  Scientists,  but  on  a 
majority  vote  of  the  community.  It  is  hard  to  see  how 
Christian  Science  is  ever  to  succeed  if  things  are  to  go  on 
in  this  democratic  way  and  even  infidels  according  to  this 
faith  are  allowed  to  vote. 

8.  FOOTSTEPS  OF  TRUTH 

This  chapter  opens  with  the  statement  that  *'the  best 
sermon  ever  preached  is  Truth  practiced  and  demonstrated 
by  the  destruction  of  sin,  sickness,  and  death,"  and  our 
feet  are  in  a  familiar  path.  We  learn  that  *'to  mortal 
sense,  sin  and  suffering  are  real,*'  in  spite  of  the  ceaseless 
iteration  that  they  are  "nonexistent,"  "fiction,"  "myths," 
"delusions,"  and  "nothing."  How  what  is  nonexistent 
and  nothing  can  in  any  sense  be  "real"  passes  understand- 
ing. At  times  we  find  a  distinction  between  "mortal 
mind"  and  "matter,"  and  yet  we  are  also  told  that 
"matter"  is  "another  name  for  mortal  mind."  Although 
we  are  told  as  early  as  in  the  Preface  of  the  book  that 
"the  human  mind  as  a  healing  agent"  "is  not  a  factor 
in  the  principle  of  Christian  Science,"  yet  in  this  chapter 
we  are  warned,  "You  must  control  evil  thoughts  in  the 
first  instance,  or  they  will  control  you  in  the  second," 
and  are  assured,  "If  you  believe  in  and  practice  wrong 
knowingly,  you  can  at  once  change  your  course  and  do 
right";  we  are  also  frequently  bidden  to  "deny"  evil. 

The  eternity  of  man,  which  is  a  principle  of  pantheism, 
comes  to  the  surface  in  this  chapter.     "Man  in  Science  is 


SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK  121 

neither  young  nor  old.  He  has  neither  birth  nor  death." 
In  accordance  with  this  teaching  followers  are  admon- 
ished, * 'Never  record  ages.  Chronological  data  are  no 
part  of  the  vast  forever.  Time-tables  of  birth  and  death 
are  so  many  conspiracies  against  manhood  and  woman- 
hood." Man  is  only  an  "idea"  or  a  "reflection"  of  God 
and  has  no  existence  apart  from  God. 

9.  CREATION 

In  the  opening  paragraph  we  read:  "The  mythical 
human  theories  of  creation,  anciently  classified  as  the 
higher  criticism,  sprang  from  cultured  scholars  in  Rome 
and  in  Greece."  This  indicates  that  Mrs.  Eddy's  idea 
of  "the  higher  criticism"  is  peculiar,  but  she  frequently 
indulges  in  these  slips  of  ignorance  which  her  ofiicial 
censor  overlooked.  Again  the  statement  is  made  that 
"the  belief  in  a  bodily  soul  and  a  material  mind"  "is 
shallow  pantheism,"  showing  her  misconception  of  pan- 
theism. All  the  way  through  her  book  she  thinks  that 
pantheism  is  the  doctrine  of  "mind  in  matter." 

In  this  chapter  further  light  or  obscurity  is  thrown  on 
Mrs.  Eddy's  view  of  the  nature  of  "man"  after  he  has 
been  stripped  of  "mortal  mind."  The  "five  corporeal 
senses"  are  gone  so  that  "man"  no  longer  sees  or  hears 
or  feels  either  pain  or  pleasure.  "We  know  no  more  of 
man  as  the  true  divine  image  and  likeness,  than  we  know 
of  God."  "Man  is  deathless,  spiritual.  He  is  above  sin 
or  frailty.  He  does  not  cross  the  barriers  of  time  into 
the  vast  forever  of  Life,  but  he  coexists  with  God  and 
the  universe." 

"The  effect  of  mortal  mind  on  health  and  happiness  is 


122        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

seen  in'*  the  case  of  an  aged  actor  "who  hobbled  every- 
day to  the  theater,  and  sat  aching  in  his  chair  till  his  cue 
was  spoken — a  signal  which  made  him  as  oblivious  of 
physical  infirmity  as  if  he  had  inhaled  chloroform, 
though  he  was  in  the  full  possession  of  his  so-called  senses." 
This  is  a  good  illustration  of  the  power  of  the  mind  over 
the  body,  which  is  the  stock  in  trade  of  Christian  Science 
and  the  principle  it  has  capitalized,  however  this  may  be 
denied. 

"Spirit  and  its  formations  are  the  only  realities  of 
being,"  we  read.  Philosophical  idealism  makes  this  same 
assertion,  only  by  "formations"  it  means  the  material 
world.  It  is  difficult  to  say  what  Mrs.  Eddy  means  by 
the  word  in  this  connection,  only  she  cannot  mean 
"matter,"  for  this  is  her  one  universal  devil  and  father 
of  all  evil.  The  material  universe,  which  philosophical 
idealism  views  as  the  ."formations"  or  activities  of  the 
infinite  Spirit,  is  in  her  system  the  one  great  falsity  to 
be  detested  and  cast  out  of  all  thought  and  life.  This 
distinction  marks  the  deep  and  impassable  gulf  between 
Christian  Science  and  philosophical  idealism;  the  one 
is  a  fundamental  misunderstanding  and  perversion  of 
the  other. 

10.  SCIENCE  OF  BEING 

This  chapter  is  the  longest  in  the  book,  extending  to 
seventy-three  pages,  but  it  is  only  the  same  confusion 
confounded.  Mrs.  Eddy  does  not  use  the  technical  term 
"ontology"  in  this  chapter  or  anywhere  in  her  writings, 
probably  because  she  had  not  heard  of  it,  for  with  her 
love  of  big  swelling  words  which  she  did  not  understand 
it  would  surely  have  been  a  sweet  morsel  under  her  tongue. 


"SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK    123 

"Belief  in  a  material  basis,  from  which  may  be  deduced 
all  rationality,  is  slowly  yielding  to  the  idea  of  a  meta- 
physical basis."  The  idea  is  familiar,  after  having  read 
it  hundreds  of  times,  but  how  from  "a  material  basis," 
"may  be  deduced  all  rationality'*  is  a  new  perplexity. 
Is  "rationality"  also  one  of  the  delusive  exercises  of 
"mortal  mind"?  If  so  we  may  be  pardoned  for  thinking 
that  this  is  one  reason  why  it  is  so  seldom  employed  in 
this  volume. 

All  through  this  book  Mrs.  Eddy  uses  familiar  words  in 
a  peculiar  sense,  constituting  the  jargon  or  slang  of 
Christian  Science,  although,  of  course,  she  inherited  this 
language  from  Quimby  and  others  of  her  predecessors. 
"Science"  is  one  of  these  terms  which  is  used  in  a  sense 
very  different  from  its  ordinary  and  accepted  meaning. 
The  reader  is  told,  "Deductions  from  material  hypotheses 
are  not  scientific.  They  differ  from  real  Science  because 
thej^  are  not  based  on  divine  law.  Divine  Science  reverses 
the  false  testimony  of  the  senses,  and  thus  tears  away  the 
foundations  of  error."  There  is  indeed  "enmity,"  as 
Mrs.  Eddy  says,  between  this  kind  of  "Science"  and  the 
science  which  all  the  world  knows. 

The  usual  self-contradictions  stare  us  in  the  face  on 
every  page.  "Spirit  is  the  only  substance  and  conscious- 
ness recognized  by  divine  Science.  The  material  senses 
oppose  this,  but  there  are  no  material  senses,  for  matter 
has  no  mind."  If  there  "are  no  material  senses,"  how 
can  they  "oppose"  anything?  That  "matter  has  no 
mind"  is  announced  with  all  the  appearance  of  a  new 
statement,  though  it  has  been  asserted  thousands  of  times 
in  this  book  and  is  found  in  one  or  another  form  no  less 
than  sixteen  times  on  this  same  page  (278). 


124        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Mrs.  Eddy  informs  us  that  *'in  the  Saxon  and  twenty 
other  tongues  *good'  is  the  term  for  God,"  but  this  ety- 
mology is  like  her  other  etymologies,  a  *'fiction"  of  her 
"mortal  mind."  Long  ago  an  American  humorist  said, 
**It  is  better  not  to  know  so  many  things  than  to  know  so 
much  that  ain't  so." 

Once  in  a  while  the  reader  is  launched  out  on  the  deep  of 
natural  science  and  is  treated  to  some  wonderful  opinions. 
Physicists  who  are  striving  day  and  night  to  find  out 
what  electricity  is  should  consult  this  book,  where  they 
may  read:  "Electricity  is  the  sharp  surplus  of  materiality 
which  counterfeits  the  true  essence  of  spirituality  or 
truth — the  great  difference  being  that  electricity  is  not 
intelligent,  while  spiritual  truth  is  Mind."  This  is  almost 
as  clear  as  the  nature  of  electricity  itself. 

Mrs.  Eddy  hardly  ever  quotes  or  refers  to  Scripture 
that  she  does  not  utterly  pervert  it  to  her  own  purpose, 
putting  on  it  a  sense  the  Scripture  writer  never  dreamed 
of.  Thus:  "Jacob  was  alone,  wrestling  with  error — 
struggling  with  a  mortal  sense  of  life,  substance,  and  in- 
telligence as  existent  in  matter  with  its  false  pleasures  and 
pains — when  an  angel,  a  message  from  Truth  and  Love, 
appeared  to  him  and  smote  the  sinew,  or  strength,  of  his 
error,  till  he  saw  its  unreality;  and  Truth,  being  thereby 
understood,  gave  him  spiritual  strength  in  this  Peniel  of 
divine  Science."  This  is  a  fair  specimen  of  what  Scripture 
becomes  in  her  hands. 

"Matter  is  made  up  of  supposititious  mortal  mind 
force."  "Matter"  is  a  wonderfully  elusive  shadow  in 
Mrs.  Eddy's  teaching.  "Mortal  mind"  is  itself  "nothing," 
and  now  we  have  a  "supposititious"  "nothing,'*  or 
* 'nothing"  raised  to  the  second  degree  of  nothingness,  or 


"SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK  125 

a  zero  of  zero.  "If  Soul  could  sin.  Spirit,  Soul,  would  be 
flesh  instead  of  Spirit.  It  is  the  belief  of  the  flesh  and  of 
material  sense  which  sins."  But  we  have  been  told  a 
thousand  times  that  *'flesh,"  "matter,"  has  no  "intelli- 
gence" and  is  "nothing,"  and  here  we  have  "material 
sense"  exercising  "belief"  so  that  it  "sins." 

Of  a  dead  man  she  says:  "The  belief  of  that  mortal  man 
that  he  must  die  occasioned  his  departure."  If  the  poor 
man  had  not  believed  he  must  die  he  would  not  have 
died.  Strange  that  all  the  devotees  of  this  cult,  including 
Mrs.  Eddy  herself,  who  profess  that  belief  in  death  is 
nothing,  yet  die  with  such  unfailing  regularity  and  total 
unanimity. 

"The  true  idea  of  God .  .  .  takes  away  all  sin  and  the 
delusion  that  there  are  other  minds,  and  destroys  mortal- 
ity." That  there  are  "other  minds"  is  also  a  delusion 
and  thus  one  is  landed  in  the  pit  of  pantheism.  "The 
divine  principle  which  saves  and  heals":  "Principle"  is 
always  treated  as  a  neuter  impersonal  noun,  and  thus 
Mrs.  Eddy's  very  grammar  is  pantheistic. 

"One  should  not  tarry  in  the  storm  if  the  body  is 
freezing,  nor  should  he  remain  in  the  devouring  flames." 
Why  not  since  the  body  is  nothing.?  "Until  one  is  able  to 
prevent  bad  results,  he  should  avoid  their  occasion." 
Christian  Scientists  do  avoid  freezing  and  flames  along 
with  other  people,  though  they  do  so  at  the  expense  of 
their  faith  in  their  own  doctrine. 

This  chapter  concludes  with  thirty-two  numbered 
paragraphs  which  are  laid  down  as  the  "platform"  of 
Christian  Science.  The  first  sentence  of  the  first  para- 
graph reads,  "God  is  infinite,  the  only  Life,  substance. 
Spirit,  or  Soul,  the  only  intelhgence  of  the  universe,  in- 


126        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

eluding  man."  The  pantheism  of  this  principle  is  ap- 
parent, and  the  same  principle  runs  through  all  of  these 
paragraphs.  The  substance  of  the  entire  platform  is  ex- 
pressed in  the  third  paragraph:  "The  notion  that  both 
evil  and  good  are  real  is  a  delusion  of  material  sense, 
which  Science  annihilates.'*  In  the  tenth  paragraph  we 
have  a  statement  of  the  distinction  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
makes  between  "Jesus"  as  a  human  person  and  "Christ" 
as  "the  divine  idea  of  God."  "Jesus  demonstrated 
Christ;  he  proved  that  Christ  is  the  divine  idea  of  God — 
the  Holy  Ghost,  or  Comforter,  revealing  the  divine 
Principle,  Love,  and  leading  into  all  truth."  We  have 
already  been  told  that  "the  Holy  Ghost"  or  "Comforter" 
is  "Divine  Science." 

In  paragraph  twenty-five  is  this  statement:  "God  is 
individual  and  personal  in  a  scientific  sense,  but  not  in 
any  anthropomorphic  sense."  Is  this  a  denial  of  pan- 
theism? It  is  not.  What  is  meant  by  saying  that  God 
is  personal  "in  a  scientific  sense". f^  The  word  "scientific" 
here  means  a  "Christian  scientific  sense,"  and  an  "an- 
thropomorphic sense"  is  the  only  sense  in  which  we  can 
understand  personality  and  ascribe  it  to  God. 

11.  SOME  OBJECTIONS  ANSWERED 

Out  of  the  mass  of  repetition  in  this  chapter  four  ob- 
jections to  Christian  Science  are  mentioned.  The  first 
is:  "It  is  objected  to  Christian  Science  that  it  claims  God 
as  the  only  absolute  Life  and  Soul,  and  man  to  be  his 
idea — that  is,  his  image."  The  objection  is  that  Christian 
Science  merges  man  in  a  pantheistic  God.  The  answer 
made  is:  "It  should  be  added  that  this  is  claimed  to  rep- 
resent   the    normal,    healthful,  and    sinless    condition    of 


"SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH:"  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK  127 

man  in  divine  Science,  and  that  this  claim  is  made  be- 
cause the  Scriptures  say  that  God  has  created  man  in 
his  own  image  and  after  his  hkeness.  Is  it  sacrilegious 
to  assume  that  God's  likeness  is  not  found  in  matter,  sin, 
sickness,  and  death?"  The  answer  confuses  "idea"  and 
*'image."  An  *'idea'*  of  God  is  a  state  of  his  own  con- 
sciousness, and  if  man  is  "an  idea  of  God'*  then  he  is  part 
of  God  and  we  are  landed  in  pantheism.  The  Scripture 
doctrine  that  man  is  created  "in  the  image  of  God"  does 
not  make  man  a  part  of  God  but  a  distinct  being  and  sepa- 
rate personality.  When  Mrs.  Eddy  teaches  that  "man 
is  an  idea  of  God"  she  is  teaching  pantheism  and  the 
first  objection  is  sustained. 

The  second  objection  is:  "It  is  sometimes  said,  in  criti- 
cizing Christian  Science,  that  the  mind  which  contradicts 
itself  neither  knows  itself  nor  what  it  is  saying.  It  is 
indeed  no  small  matter  to  know  oneself;  but  in  this 
volume  of  mine  there  are  no  contradictory  statements — 
at  least  none  which  are  apparent  to  those  who  understand 
its  propositions  well  enough  to  pass  judgment  upon  them." 
The  answer  is  only  a  dogmatic  denial  of  the  objection 
and  does  not  remove  the  abounding  self-contradictions 
in  this  volume,  and  the  objection  stands. 

The  third  objection  is:  "It  is  sometimes  said  that 
Christian  Science  teaches  the  nothingness  of  sin,  sickness, 
and  death,  and  then  teaches  how  this  nothingness  is  to 
be  saved  and  healed.  The  nothingness  of  nothing  is 
plain;  but  we  need  to  understand  that  error  is  nothing, 
and  that  its  nothingness  is  not  saved,  but  must  be  demon- 
strated in  order  to  prove  the  somethingness — yea,  the 
allness — of  Truth.  It  is  self-evident  that  we  are  harmoni- 
ous only  as  we  cease  to  manifest  evil  or  the  belief  that  we 


128        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

suffer  for  the  sins  of  others.  DisbeHef  in  error  destroys 
error,  and  leads  to  the  discernment  of  Truth.  There  are 
no  vacuums.  How  then  can  this  demonstration  be 
'fraught  with  falsities  painful  to  behold'?'*  This  is  a 
fine  specimen  of  Christian  Science  lingo  and  logic.  *'Error 
is  nothing,"  yet  ''disbelief  in  error  [destroys  error," 
that  is,  "disbelief  in  nothing  destroys  nothing."  The 
absurdity  of  teaching  "the  nothingness  of  sickness," 
and  then  writing  a  book  of  seven  hundred  pages  to  explain 
how  to  heal  this  nothingness  is  still  "painful  to  behold,'* 
and  this  objection  still  stands.  What  Mrs.  Eddy  really 
means  by  "the  nothingness  of  sickness"  is  that  sickness 
is  a  subjective  state  of  mind  and  not  an  objective  bodily 
reality,  but  she  never  succeeds  in  expressing  this  idea. 
She  digged  this  pit  for  herself  when  she  started  out  with 
her  initial  blunder  that  "matter"  is  a  "delusion"  to  be 
"denied"  and  cast  out  of  the  mind.  There  is  a  sense  in 
which  she  believes  in  the  existence  of  sickness  and  another 
sense  in  which  she  does  not,  but  she  never  makes  the 
distinction  clear  to  her  readers  or  to  herself  and  therefore 
she  is  constantly  involving  herself  in  confusion  and  con- 
tradiction. 

The  fourth  objection  is:  "It  is  said  by  one  critic,  that 
to  verify  this  wonderful  philosophy  Christian  Science 
declared  that  whatever  is  mortal  or  discordant  has  no 
origin,  existence,  nor  realness.  Nothing  really  has  Life 
but  God,  who  is  infinite  Life;  hence  all  is  Life,  and  death 
has  no  dominion.  This  writer  infers  that  if  anything 
needs  to  be  doctored,  it  must  be  the  one  God,  or  Mind. 
Had  he  stated  his  syllogism  correctly,  the  conclusion 
would  be  that  there  is  nothing  to  be  doctored."  To  see 
Mrs.  Eddy  giving  a  lesson  to  anybody  on  stating  a  "syllo- 


''SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK    129 

gism  correctly"  is  amusing  in  the  extreme.  This  fourth 
objection  is  the  same  pantheistic  objection  as  the  first 
one,  and  notwithstanding  the  lesson  on  syllogistic  logic 
it  still  stands. 

12.   CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  PRACTICE 

The  principle  of  Christian  Science  practice  is  summed 
up  in  the  statement:  "The  efficient  remedy  is  to  destroy 
the  patient's  false  belief  by  both  silently  and  audibly 
arguing  the  true  facts  in  regard  to  harmonious  being — 
representing  man  as  healthy  instead  of  diseased,  and 
showing  that  it  is  impossible  for  matter  to  suffer,  to  feel 
pain  or  heat,  to  be  thirsty  or  sick.  Destroy  fear,  and  you 
end  fever."  This  is  the  principle  of  faith  healing  in  all 
its  forms,  however  often  Mrs.  Eddy  may  claim  that  her 
system  is  something  different.  The  difficulty,  of  course, 
if  not  the  impossibility  is  to  keep  on  saying  you  don't 
*'feel  pain"  when  you  know  you  do.  Fever  "ends  in  a 
belief  called  death,"  but  "destroy  the  fear,  and  you  end 
the  fever."  "When  the  first  symptoms  of  disease  appear, 
dispute  the  testimony  of  the  material  senses  with  divine 
Science."  "Suffer  no  claim  of  sin  or  of  sickness  to  grow 
upon  the  thought.  Dismiss  it  with  an  abiding  conviction 
that  it  is  illegitimate,  because  you  know  that  God  is  no 
more  the  author  of  sickness  than  he  is  of  sin." 

Mrs.  Eddy  has  a  pronounced  aversion  to  hygiene  and 
all  its  works.  "If  half  the  attention  given  to  hygiene 
were  given  to  the  study  of  Christian  Science  and  to  the 
spiritualization  of  thought,  this  alone  would  usher  in 
the  millennium.  Constant  bathing  and  rubbing  to  alter 
the  secretions  or  to  remove  unhealthy  exhalations  from 
the  cuticle  receive  a  useful  rebuke  from  Jesus'  precept, 


130        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

*Take  no  thought.   .    .   for  the  body'.    .    .   He  who  is  ig- 
norant of  hygienic  law,  is  more  receptive  of  spiritual  power 
and  of  faith  in  one  God,  than  is  the  devotee  of  supposed 
hygienic  law,  who  comes  to  teach  the  so-called  ignorant 
one."     An  ignorant  immigrant  or  a  savage  covered  with 
filth  and  vermin  *'is  more  receptive  of  spiritual  power'* 
than  one  who  takes  a  bath  and  puts  on  clean  linen  at  proper 
intervals.     Bathing  a  baby  is  *'no  more  natural  or  neces- 
sary than  would  be  the  process  of  taking  a  fish  out  of  water 
every  day  and  covering  it  with  dirt  to  make  it  thrive 
more  vigorously  thereafter  in  its  native  element"!     Here 
is  a  woman  in  this  enlightened  day,  after  the  battle  for  obe- 
dience to  the  laws  of  health  as  against  the  outrageous 
and  dreadful  treatment  of  the  body  in  the  Dark  Ages 
has  been  won  at  the  cost  of  centuries  of  struggle  with 
ignorance  and  superstition,  who  would  throw  overboard 
anatomy,  physiology,  hygiene,  pathology,  materia  medica, 
and  all  the  knowledge  we  have  gained  that  has  banished 
pestilence  and  enabled  us  to  heal  and  save  thousands 
of  men  and  women  and  children,  and  plunge  the  world 
back  into  the  blackest  night  of  savagery.     * 'Realize  the 
evidence  of  the  senses  is  not  to  be  accepted  in  the  case 
of  sickness,  any  more  than  it  is  in  the  case  of  sin."     Look 
on  your  suffering  dear  one,   mother  or  wife  or  darling 
child,  however  the  beloved  one  may  scream  and  writhe 
in  agony,  with  a  stony  heart  and  never  move  a  hand, 
for  there  is  no  suffering  and  only  your  eyes  and  ears 
are    telling    you    lies.     What    monsters    of    cold-blooded 
insensibility  and  cruelty  can  such  a  doctrine  make  out 
of  human  beings!     In  numerous  published  and  in  un- 
numbered  unpublished   instances   Christian   Science   be- 
lievers and  practitioners  have  refused  to  accept  the  evi- 


"SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK    131 

dence  of  their  senses  and  have  stood  stohdly  by  and  let 
die  the  sick  who  might  have  been  saved.  No  wonder 
that  when  these  facts  are  known  people  stand  aghast 
with  horror  at  such  inhumanity  and  that  the  civil  courts 
interfere  to  prevent  it  as  a  barbarism. 

*'Not  understanding  Christian  Science  the  sick  usually 
have  little  faith  in  it  till  they  feel  its  beneficent  influence. 
This  shows  that  faith  is  not  the  healer  in  such  cases.  The 
sick  unconsciously  argue  for  suffering,  instead  of  against 
it.  They  admit  its  reality,  whereas  they  should  deny 
it."  "They  should  deny  it":  What  is  this  but  exercising 
faith  in  the  system.  The  contention  that  faith  on  the 
part  of  the  sick  plays  no  part  in  their  healing  is  falsified 
on  many  a  page.  "Always  support  their  trust  in  the 
power  of  Mind  to  sustain  the  body." 

Because  failure  in  surgical  cases  is  too  patent  and  public 
and  because  of  the  law,  they  are  exempt  from  Christian 
Science  treatment.  "Until  the  advancing  age  admits  the 
efficacy  and  supremacy  of  Mind,  it  is  better  for  Christian 
Scientists  to  leave  surgery  and  the  adjustment  of  broken 
bones  and  dislocations  to  the  fingers  of  a  surgeon,  while 
the  mental  healer  confines  himself  chiefly  to  mental  recon- 
struction and  to  the  prevention  of  inflammation.  Chris- 
tian Science  is  always  the  most  skillful  surgeon,  but 
surgery  is  the  branch  of  its  healing  which  will  be  the  last 
acknowledged."  It  is  always  the  most  skillful  surgeon, 
yet  it  is  better  to  leave  surgery  to  the  surgeon.  The  logic 
is  lame,  as  the  author  has  not  "stated  her  syllogism 
correctly,"  but  the  conclusion  is  sound. 

From  a  precious  passage  in  this  chapter  we  learn  that 
everyone  is  crazy  except  the  devotees  of  Christian  Science. 
"There  is  a  universal  insanity  of  so-called  health,  which 


132        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

mistakes  fable  for  fact  throughout  the  entire  round  of  the 
material  senses,  but  this  general  craze  cannot,  in  a  scientific 
diagnosis,  shield  the  individual  case  from  the  special  name 
of  insanity.  Those  unfortunate  people  who  are  committed 
to  insane  asylums  are  only  so  many  distinctly  defined  in- 
stances of  the  baneful  effects  of  illusion  on  mortal  minds 
and  bodies."  If  to  be  sane  is  to  be  in  the  same  state  of 
mind  with  the  author  of  this  confused  book,  many  of  her 
readers  would  prefer  to  be  crazy.  The  reader  is  told 
further  that  *'if  the  reader  of  this  book  observes  a  great  stir 
throughout  his  whole  system,  and  certain  moral  and 
physical  symptoms  seem  aggravated,  these  indications 
are  favorable.  Continue  to  read,  and  the  book  will 
become  the  physician,  allaying  the  tremor  which  Truth 
often  brings  to  error  when  destroying  it.'*  One  does, 
indeed,  notice  while  reading  this  book  that  "certain  moral 
and  physical  symptoms  seem  aggravated,"  but  they  are 
symptoms  of  increasing  stupor  and  deep  drowsiness  mak- 
ing it  hard  to  keep  from  falling  dead  asleep. 

13.  TEACHING  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Early  in  this  chapter  is  encountered  the  fear  of  animal 
magnetism  which  runs  through  it.  "Also  the  teacher 
must  thoroughly  fit  his  students  to  defend  themselves 
against  sin,  and  to  guard  against  the  attacks  of  the  would- 
be  mental  assassin,  who  attempts  to  kill  morally  and 
physically."  *'A  thorough  perusal  of  the  author's  publi- 
cations heals  the  sick.  If  patients  sometimes  seem  worse 
while  reading  this  book,  the  change  may  arise  either 
from  the  alarm  of  the  physician,  or  it  may  mark  the  crisis 
of  the  disease.     Perseverance  in  the  perusal  of  the  book 


**SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH" :  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK  133 

has  generally  healed  such  cases/*  The  book  is  thus 
treated  as  if  it  were  charged  with  magic  and  had  the  virtue 
of  the  fetish  of  a  South  Sea  islander.  There  are  curious 
affinities  between  Christian  Science  and  fetishism,  the 
worship  of  relics  and  even  devil  worship  with  its  mental 
assassination,  and  other  forms  of  superstition.  The 
author  confesses  that  he  did  * 'sometimes  seem  worse 
while  reading  this  book,**  but  in  his  case  the  trouble  did 
not  "arise  either  from  the  alarm  of  the  physician,**  or 
from  "the  crisis  of  the  disease,*'  but  it  arose  from  the 
tangle  of  confusion  and  absurdity  in  the  book  itself. 

Here  and  there  one  finds  good  things  in  this  book.  For 
example:  "If  patients  fail  to  experience  the  healing  power 
of  Christian  Science,  and  think  they  can  be  benefited  by 
certain  ordinary  physical  methods  of  medical  treatment, 
then  the  mind  physician  should  give  up  such  cases,  and 
leave  invalids  free  to  resort  to  whatever  other  systems 
they  fancy  will  afford  relief.**  This  is  good  advice,  and 
many  of  Christian  Science  patients  have  acted  on  it  with 
good  results.  One  also  reads:  "Students  are  advised  by 
the  author  to  be  charitable  and  kind,  not  only  towards 
differing  forms  of  religion  and  medicine,  but  to  those  who 
hold  these  differing  opinions.*'  This  also  is  good  advice 
for  all  people. 

We  are  told  that  "it  is  anything  but  scientifically 
Christian  to  think  of  aiding  the  divine  Principle  of  healing 
or  of  trying  to  sustain  the  human  body  until  the  divine 
Mind  is  ready  to  take  the  case."  Does  not  this  mean  or 
imply  that  it  is  not  in  accordance  with  Christian  Science 
to  be  "trying  to  sustain  the  human  body'*  with  food.^^ 
This  is  certainly  the  logic  and  sometimes  is  the  express 
teaching  of  this  system,  yet  on  turning  the  leaf  one  reads : 


134        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

"I  do  not  maintain  that  anyone  can  exist  in  the  flesh 
without  food  and  raiment."  These  self-contradictions 
abound  and  are  inherent  in  the  system. 

Another  inconsistency  appears  in  the  following:  "Usually 
to  admit  that  you  are  sick,  renders  your  case  less  curable, 
while  to  recognize  your  sin,  aids  in  destroying  it."  Since 
both  sickness  and  sin  are  equally  unreal  and  "nothing," 
why  should  admitting  the  one  and  recognizing  the  other 
have  such  opposite  effects.? 

"Our  Master .  .  .  never  enjoined  obedience  to  the  laws 
of  nature."  How  absurd  is  such  a  statement!  Time  and 
again  he  fed  hungry  people  and  when  he  raised  the  little 
daughter  of  Jairus  from  the  sleep  of  death  "he  commanded 
that  something  should  be  given  her  to  eat."  Mrs.  Eddy 
would  abolish  the  whole  framework  of  the  universe  and 
then  she  presumes  to  quote  Jesus  Christ  as  sustaining 
her  absurdity. 

Obstetrics  is  a  delicate  and  dangerous  point  with 
Christian  Scientists.  "Teacher  and  student  should  also 
be  familiar  with  the  obstetrics  taught  by  this  Science. 
To  attend  properly  the  birth  of  the  new  child  [did  anyone 
ever  attend  the  birth  of  an  "old"  child.?],  or  divine  idea, 
you  should  detach  mortal  thought  from  its  material  con- 
ceptions, that  the  birth  will  be  natural  and  safe."  This 
kind  of  "obstetrics"  was  tried  in  the  early  history  of 
Christian  Science  with  terrible  results,  but  the  law  now 
has  something  to  say  about  such  practice. 

On  the  last  page  of  this  chapter  one  finds  a  grave  relapse 
from  Christian  Science  orthodox  belief  and  practice.  "If 
from  an  injury  or  from  any  cause,  a  Christian  Scientist 
were  seized  with  a  pain  so  violent  that  he  could  not  treat 
himself  mentally — and  the  Scientist  had  failed  to  relieve 


'SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK    135 

him — the  sufferer  could  call  a  surgeon,  who  would  give 
him  a  hypodermic  injection,  then,  when  the  belief  in 
pain  was  lulled,  he  could  handle  his  own  case  mentally. 
Thus  it  is  that  we  *prove  all  things;  [and]  hold  fast  that 
which  is  good."'  It  seems  that  this  advice  plainly  admits 
the  * 'some thingness"  instead  of  the  "nothingness"  of  pain, 
especially  when  it  becomes  *'so  violent"  that  the  Christian 
Scientist  is  helpless  before  it.  And  is  it  not  a  rather 
humiliating  confession  of  having  "failed"  and  an  abject 
groveling  before  "a  surgeon"  to  run  to  him  for  help  in  such 
an  extremity.^  In  this  chapter  Mrs.  Eddy  says  that  "it 
should  be  granted  that  the  author  understands  what  she 
is  saying."  One  frequently  doubts,  while  reading  this 
book,  that  she  did,  and  it  is  certain  that  often  nobody 
else  understands  her;  and  it  seems  that  she  must  have 
been  nodding  when  she  made  this  admission  and  gave 
this  advice.  If  Christian  Science  "is  always  the  most 
skilful  surgeon,"  why  ever  go  back  on  it  and  run  away  from 
it  to  such  a  "nothing"  as  "a  hypodermic  injection"?  Tell 
it  not  in  Gath,  publish  it  not  in  Boston  that  Christian 
Science  has  apostatized  from  the  faith  and  bowed  the  knee 
to  the  god  of  matter  and  to  the  devil  of  medicine!  Does 
not  this  prove  that  Christian  Science  practice  becomes 
so  impossible  that  even  the  high  priestess  of  the  cult 
herself  must  abjure  its  orthodoxy  and  resort  to  the  heresy 
of  medicine  and  matter  .^^  And  after  this  authorization 
by  Mrs.  Eddy  herself,  are  we  not  now  all  warranted  in 
resorting  to  "a  hypodermic  injection"  and  to  *'a  surgeon" 
and  to  all  the  "ordinary  physical  methods  of  medical 
treatment".?  May  we  not  now  go  further  and  obey  all 
"the  laws  of  nature"  ?  May  we  not  now  not  only  eat  food 
and  wear  clothes,  but  wash  our  babies  and  even  occasion- 


136       THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

ally  take  a  bath  and  put  on  clean  linen  ourselves?  Where 
are  we  going  to  draw  the  line?  If  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her 
followers  can  resort  to  the  "hypodermic"  and  the  "sur- 
geon" in  the  dry  tree,  what  may  not  we  do  in  the  green 
tree?  The  bars  are  down  and  we  appear  to  be  free  to 
roam  and  revel  in  the  nothingness  of  matter. 

14.  RECAPITULATION 

This  chapter  recapitulates  the  few  ideas  which  have 
already  been  said  many  hundreds  of  times  in  the  book  by 
saying  them  over  again  many  times  more.  It  consists 
of  questions  and  answers,  and  two  main  threads  run 
through  them  all:  pantheism  and  the  "nothingness"  of 
matter  and  sickness  and  suffering  and  sin.  It  will  not  be 
necessary  to  do  more  than  give  a  few  illustrations.  The 
whole  chapter  is  saturated  with  pantheism.  God  is 
Principle  and  "Principle"  is  always  treated  as  an  im- 
personal noun,  as  of  course  it  is.  The  fourth  question  is, 
"What  are  spirits  and  souls?"  The  answer  is :  "To  human 
belief  they  are  personalities  constituted  of  mind  and 
matter,  life  and  death,  truth  and  error,  good  and  evil; 
but  these  contrasting  pairs  of  terms  represent  contraries, 
as  Christian  Science  reveals,  which  neither  dwell  together 
nor  assimilate."  Of  course  this  very  language  contradicts 
itself,  for  how  can  spirits  be  "personalities  constituted" 
of  these  "contraries"  if  they  "neither  dwell  together  nor 
assimilate"  ?  Next  one  reads :  "The  term  'souls'  or  'spirits' 
is  as  improper  as  the  term  *gods.'  Soul  or  Spirit  signifies 
deity  and  nothing  else.  There  is  no  finite  soul  nor  spirit. 
Soul  or  Spirit  means  only  one  mind,  and  cannot  be 
rendered  in  the  plural."  This  is  Mrs.  Eddy's  constant 
teaching  that  there  is  no  separate  human  soul  or  spirit. 


"SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK   137 

but  that  the  only  soul  is  God  and  man  is  "an  idea"  of 
God.  Man  is  merged  in  God,  and  one  is  landed  in  the 
pit  of  pantheism. 

As  for  the  nothingness  of  matter  which  runs  through 
this  recapitulation,  we  need  only  adduce  the  familiar 
statements  that  *'matter  is  mortal  error,"  and  that  *'sin, 
sickness,  and  death  are  to  be  classified  as  effects  of  error." 

The  last  question  in  this  chapter  is,  "Have  Christian 
Scientists  any  religious  creed.?"  The  answer  starts  off, 
"They  have  not,  if  by  that  term  is  meant  doctrinal  beliefs. 
The  following  is  a  brief  exposition  of  the  important  points, 
or  religious  tenets,  of  Christian  Science."  Then  follow 
six  "tenets,"  every  one  of  which  is  a  "doctrinal  belief," 
and  all  taken  together  constitute  a  "religious  creed," 
which  it  has  just  been  denied  that  Christian  Scientists 
have.  The  first  "tenet"  is,  "As  adherents  of  Truth,  we 
take  the  inspired  Word  of  the  Bible  as  our  sufficient  guide 
to  eternal  life."  But  it  is  easily  seen  how  Mrs.  Eddy 
perverts  the  Scripture  to  her  own  whimsical  and  often 
absurd  interpretation  and  purpose,  and  this  fact  nullifies 
this  first  tenet.  The  other  five  tenets,  which  relate  to 
the  "one  supreme  and  infinite  God,"  "forgiveness  of  sin," 
"Jesus'  atonement,"  "the  crucifixion  of  Jesus  and  his 
resurrection,"  and  prayer  are  all  vitiated  and  under- 
mined by  the  same  absurd  system  of  interpretation. 

15.  GENESIS 

With  this  chapter  begins  the  appendix  to  "Science  and 
Health,"  which  is  called  *'Key  to  the  Scriptures."  This 
was  not  in  the  early  editions  of  the  book,  for  at  first  Mrs. 
Eddy  had  no  thought  of  starting  a  rehgion,  and  the  "Key 
to  the  Scriptures"  was  an  afterthought  which  was  produced 


138        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

and  appended  to  the  book  in  1884,  after  she  began  to 
dream  of  the  day  when  "the  church  bells  would  ring  out 
her  birthday." 

If  the  reader  of  "Science  and  Health"  constantly  wonders 
at  the  type  and  state  of  the  mind  that  could  have  pro- 
duced such  a  mass  and  mess  of  obscurity  and  absurdity, 
literally  denying  the  reality  of  the  world  and  turning  it 
all  into  an  illusion  and  delusion  and  also  constantly 
denying  this  denial,  he  will  wonder  still  more  at  the 
"Key  to  the  Scriptures,"  which  consists  of  the  irrationality 
and  folly  of  "Science  and  Health"  raised  to  the  second 
if  not  to  the  nth  power.  This  amazing  performance 
would  be  truly  considered  incredible  and  impossible  did 
not  the  cold  type  stolidly  and  persistently  stare  one  in 
the  face. 

For  one  thing,  while  it  proclaims  itself  a  "Key  to  the 
Scriptures,"  it  consists  of  comments  on  only  a  few  verses 
of  Scripture,  about  one  hundred  in  all.  These  verses 
consist  of  the  first,  second,  third,  and  part  of  the  fourth 
chapters  of  Genesis,  and  a  few  verses  from  the  tenth, 
twelfth,  and  twenty-first  chapters  of  Revelation.  In 
addition  the  Twenty-third  Psalm  is  appended  to  the  chap- 
ter with  Mrs.  Eddy's  interpretation  and  perversion  of 
it  after  the  manner  of  her  rendition  of  The  Lord's  Prayer. 
It  is  out  of  such  material  as  this  that  parallel  interpre- 
tations to  every  part  of  the  Scripture  are  furnished  to  be 
read  along  with  the  Scriptures  in  the  Christian  Science 
services;  but  as  parallel  lines  never  meet,  so  these  "par- 
allels" not  only  do  not  meet  but  usually  this  "Key  to  the 
Scriptures"  has  no  more  connection  with  the  Scriptures 
themselves  than  has  a  dog  with  the  Dog  Star. 

It  will  be  unnecessary  to  do  more  than  give  a  few  il- 


"SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK    139 

lustrations  of  the  manner  in  which  Scripture  is  unlocked 
by  this  "Key."  The  "exegesis"  of  the  very  first  verse 
of  the  Bible  consists  in  denying  its  plain  meaning.  Genesis 
1:1  reads:  "In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens 
and  the  earth."  The  comment  begins:  "The  infinite 
has  no  beginning.  This  word  ^beginning'  is  employed 
to  signify  *the  only' — that  is,  the  eternal  verity  and  unity 
of  God  and  man,  including  the  universe.  The  creative 
Principle — Life,  Truth,  and  Love — is  God.  The  universe 
reflects  God.  There  is  but  one  creator  and  one  creation. 
Thiscreationconsistsof  the  unfolding  of  spiritual  ideas.  ,  . 
and  the  highest  ideas  are  the  sons  and  daughters  of  God." 
The  point  of  all  this  is  to  deny  that  there  is  any  other 
being  than  God,  and  thus  pantheism  lies  at  the  root  of 
this  interpretation  of  the  first  verse  of  the  Bible,  though 
the  verse  itself  and  the  whole  Bible  deny  pantheism 
from  beginning  to  end. 

The  comment  now  runs  along  verse  by  verse,  every 
verse  being  turned  into  an  utterly  fanciful  and  false 
"interpretation."  When  "God  said.  Let  the  waters  under 
the  heavens  be  gathered  together  unto  one  place,  and 
let  the  dry  land  appear,"  the  "interpretation"  is  that 
"Spirit,  Soul,  gathers  unformed  thoughts  into  their 
proper  channels,  and  unfolds  these  thoughts,  even  as 
he  opens  the  petals  of  a  holy  purpose  in  order  that  the 
purpose  may  appear." 

A  marvelous  division  of  the  Creation  story  in  Genesis 
is  introduced  at  the  sixth  verse  of  the  second  chapter, 
which  reads,  "But  there  went  up  a  mist  from  the  earth, 
and  watered  the  whole  face  of  the  ground."  We  are 
then  told:  "The  Science  and  truth  of  the  divine  creation 
have  been  presented  in  the  verses  already  considered. 


140        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

and  now  the  opposite  error,  a  material  view  of  creation, 
is  to  be  set  forth.     The  second  chapter  of  Genesis  contains 
a  statement  of  this  material  view  of  God  and  the  universe, 
a  statement  which  is  the  exact  opposite  of  scientific  truth 
as  before  recorded.     The  history  of  error  or  matter,  if  veri- 
table, would  set  aside  the  omnipotence  of  Spirit;  but  it 
is   the  false  history  in  contradistinction  to  the  true." 
Following   this   principle   of   interpretation,   when   it   is 
written  that  "Jehovah  God  formed  man  of  the  dust  of 
the  ground,  and  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of 
life;  and  man  became  a  Hving  soul,"  Mrs.  Eddy  exclaims, 
**Did  the  divine  and  infinite  Principle  become  a  finite 
deity,  that  he  should  now  be  called  Jehovah?     Is  this 
addition  to  his  creation  real  or  unreal.''     Is  it  truth,  or 
is  it  a  lie  concerning  man  and  God?     It  must  be  a  lie, 
for   God  presently  curses  the   ground."     A   more   false 
and  blasphemous  "interpretation"  of  Scripture  can  no- 
where be  found.     Let  it  not  be  forgotten  or  forgiven 
that  this  woman,  because  it  does  not  agree  with  her 
theory,  dared  to  write  across  the  account  of  creation  in 
the  second  chapter  of  Genesis  the  impious  statement, 
*Tt  must  be  a  lie"! 

Many  remarkable  things  come  to  light  in  the  closing 
pages  of  this  chapter.  Mrs.  Eddy  here  and  there  through 
her  book  takes  to  discussing  matters  of  science  and  delights 
in  using  big  scientific  and  philosophical  words  as  though 
she  were  learned  and  even  an  authority  in  these  things, 
and  yet  she  invariably  "gives  herself  away"  so  that  it 
is  evident  that  she  does  not  know  what  she  is  talking 
about.  A  page  or  two  are  devoted  to  "embryology" 
in  which  we  learn  some  astounding  things.  We  are  told 
that  "Agassiz  was  able  to  see  in  the  egg  the  earth's  at- 


"SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK   141 

mosphere,  the  gathering  clouds,  the  moon  and  stars, 
while  the  germinating  speck  of  so-called  embryonic  life 
seemed  a  small  sun."  Students  of  Darwin  will  be  in- 
terested in  learning  Mrs.  Eddy's  notion  of  Darwinism. 
* 'Briefly,  this  is  Darwin's  theory — that  Mind  produces 
its  opposite,  matter,  and  endues  matter  with  power  to 
recreate  the  universe,  including  man."  Professors  of  bi- 
ology will  please  make  note  of  this  valuable  summary. 

One  of  the  most  astounding  things  in  the  book  is  this: 
*'It  is  related  that  a  father  plunged  his  infant  babe,  only 
a  few  hours  old,  into  the  water  for  several  minutes,  and 
repeated  this  operation  daily,  until  the  child  could  re- 
main under  water  twenty  minutes,  moving  and  playing 
without  harm,  like  a  fish.  Parents  should  remember  this, 
and  learn  how  to  develop  their  children  properly  on  dry 
land."  The  application  does  not  seem  to  be  quite  ger- 
mane, for  obviously  the  logical  lesson  that  should  be  drawn 
from  the  alleged  fact  is  that  parents  should  learn  how  to 
develop  their  cliildren  properly  under  water.  The  real 
point,  however,  that  the  illustration  demonstrates  is  the 
monumental  credulity  of  Mrs.  Eddy.  As  she  can  get 
her  credulous  followers  to  believe  any  absurd  thing  that 
she  tells  them,  so  there  is  nothing  so  absurd  or  impossible 
that  is  too  much  for  her  own  boundless  gullibility. 

16.  THE  APOCALYPSE 

In  this  chapter  the  same  principle  of  "interpretation" 
is  applied  to  about  twenty  verses  picked  out  of  the  book 
of  Revelation.  Mrs.  Eddy  has  a  special  fondness  for  the 
verses  (ch.  12:1-6)  in  which  is  mentioned  the  "woman 
arrayed  with  the  sun,"  and  we  have  already  seen^  how 

1  Page  98. 


142         THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

she  early  began  to  suggest  the  identity  of  herself  with  this 
woman.  *'The  Revelator  saw  also  the  spiritual  ideal  as  a 
woman  clothed  in  light.  .  .  The  woman  in  the  Apoc- 
alypse symbolizes  generic  man,  the  spiritual  idea  of 
God;  she  illustrates  the  coincidence  of  God  and  man  as 
the  divine  Principle  and  divine  idea."  *'As  Elias  pre- 
sented the  idea  of  the  fatherhood  of  God,  which  Jesus 
afterwards  manifested,  so  the  Revelator  completed  this 
figure  with  woman,  typifying  the  spiritual  idea  of  God's 
motherhood."  The  strongly  suggested  analogy  is  that 
as  Jesus  manifested  the  fatherhood  of  God,  so  the  Reve- 
lator  completed  the  figure  with  woman,  who  was  Mrs. 
Eddy  herself,  "typifying  the  spiritual  idea  of  God's 
motherhood." 

It  is  unnecessary  to  follow  further  the  incredible  vagaries 
of  this  *'Key"  to  the  Apocalypse.  The  chapter  concludes 
with  the  statement:  *'The  writer's  present  feeble  sense  of 
Christian  Science  closes  with  John's  Revelation  as  re- 
corded by  the  great  apostle,  for  his  vision  is  the  acme  of 
this  Science  as  the  Bible  reveals  it."  Again  "this  Science" 
and  "the  Bible"  are  classed  together  as  divine  revelations, 
only,  as  we  have  learned,  the  "Science"  is  a  later  and 
fuller  revelation  than  the  Bible. 

17.  GLOSSARY 

This  chapter  purports  to  give  "the  metaphysical  in- 
terpretation of  Bible  terms,  giving  their  spiritual  sense, 
which  is  also  their  original  meaning."  One  hundred  and 
twenty-six  words  are  thus  defined,  the  "metaphysical 
interpretation"  consisting  of  a  string  of  supposedly 
synonomous  words  or  phrases,  in  some  instances  extending 
to  a  full  page.     A  few  choice  specimens  have  already  been 


•'SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH:"  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK    143 

culled  from  its  pages,  l  and  only  a  few  more  need  be  adduced. 
"Adam"  is  in  a  very  bad  way  with  Mrs.  Eddy,  for  she 
devotes  a  page  to  him  in  which  she  calls  him  all  manner 
of  evil  names.  If  he  had  been  living  at  the  time  he  would 
have  had  a  good  case  against  her  for  libel,  and  any  jury 
would  have  awarded  him  heavy  damages.  The  long 
catalogue  starts,  * 'Error;  a  falsity;  the  belief  in  'original 
sin,'  sickness,  and  death;  evil;  the  opposite  of  good," 
and  so  on  to  the  end  of  the  page.  In  addition  to  all  this 
she  made  this  astonishing  discovery:  *'Divide  the  name 
Adam  into  two  syllables,  and  it  reads,  *A  dam,'  or  obstruc- 
tion." The  point  of  this  remarkable  etymology,  which 
Webster  and  all  other  lexicographers  have  strangely 
overlooked,  is  that  Adam  was  an  obstruction  to  our 
growth  in  spirituality.  We  wish  to  enter  a  protest  against 
this  personal  vilification  of  Adam  and  even  dare  to  utter 
a  word  in  his  defense.  He  has  long  had  to  bear  a  heavy 
enough  burden  of  odium  in  connection  with  the  human 
race  without  having  this  terrible  catalogue  of  abusive 
epithets  unloaded  on  him.  Eve  has  only  six  lines  devoted 
to  her  * 'metaphysical  interpretation"  as  compared  with 
Adam's  full  page,  yet  she  fares  little  better,  for  she  is 
''mortality;  error;  the  belief  that  the  human  race  originated 
materially  instead  of  spiritually — that  man  started  first 
from  dust,  second  from  a  rib,  and  third  from  an  egg." 
Evidently  Eve  deserves  our  pity  and  charity.  Mrs. 
Eddy  seems  to  have  some  spite  against  Jacob  and  his 
sons,  for  Jacob  himself  is  "a  corporeal  mortal  embracing 
duplicity,  repentance,  sensualism,"  while  Benjamin  is  *'a 
physical  belief  as  to  life,  a  false  belief,"  Issachar  is  "a 
corporeal  belief,  envy;  hatred;  self-will;  lust,"  and  poor 
1  Pp.  90,  91. 


144        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Dan  is  that  dreadful  demon,  * 'Animal  magnetism."     One 

often  wonders  what  might  be  the  * 'spiritual  sense"  of  the 

river  Gihon,  but  now  comes  the  information  that  it  is 

''the  rights  of  woman  acknowledged  morally,  civilly,  and 

socially."     It  will  be  admitted  that  the  genius  that  gave 

the  river  this  name  was  gifted  with  long  foresight  and  was 

a  remarkable  prophet.     "Matter,"  of  course,  is  "another 

name  for  mortal  mind;  illusion,"  and  so  on,  ending  with 

"that  which  mortal  mind  sees,  feels,  hears,  tastes,  and 

smells   only   in   belief."     "Mortal  Mind"   is   a  familiar 

friend,  "Nothing  claiming  to  be  something,  error  creating 

other  errors,"  and  many  other  grave  offenses,  ending  in 

"sin;    sickness;    death."     "Red    Dragon"    appropriately 

means  "animal  magnetism."     "Divine  Science"  is  found 

symbolized  under  many  names,  including  "Dove,"  "Gad," 

"Elias,"  "New  Jerusalem,"  and  the  rivers  "Euphrates" 

and  "Hiddekel"! 

All  these  "metaphysical  interpretations"  are  seriously 

given  as  the  "original  meaning"  of  these  terms.     This 

egregious  "Glossary"  may  be  viewed  as  a  literary  curiosity 

and  monstrosity,  or  as  a  pitiful  display  of  ignorant  conceit, 

or  as  a  painful  exhibition  of  sacrilegious  trifling  with 

Scripture,  or  as  a  symptom  of  incipient  egotistic  insanity, 

a  kind  of  lexical  madhouse;  but  it  may  be  summed  up  by 

saying  that  it  is  a  conglomeration  of  arrant  nonsense  and 

fatuous  folly  without  a  rival,  so  far  as  is  known,  in  the 

English  or  any  other  language.  ^ 

1  We  would  find  the  nearest  approach  to  this  performance  in  the 
"allegorizing"  of  some  of  the  ancient  Hebrew  rabbis  and  the  medieval 
Cabalists.  "The  Cabalists  were  searching  out  the  sacred  inner 
meaning  of  the  Bible;  they  proceeded  slowly,  starting  with  *in  the 
beginning/  and  stopping  at  every  word,  every  letter,  and  found  in 
every  word  and  every  letter  a  mine  of  secrets."  Viktor  Rydberg, 
The  Magic  of  the  Middle  Ages,  p.  144. 


"SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH" :  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK    145 

18.  FRUITAGE 

The  final  chapter  of  the  book  consists  of  eighty-four 
letters,  republished  from  The  Christian  Science  Journal 
and  Christian  Science  Sentinel,  giving  the  experiences  *'of 
people  who  have  been  reformed  and  healed  through  the 
perusal  or  study  of  this  book.*'  The  consideration  of 
such  cures  will  be  taken  up  in  a  later  chapter. 

However,  for  the  present,  the  author  wishes  to  point 
out  two  strange  features  that  are  obvious  to  the  most 
casual  non-Scientist  reader  of  these  letters;  two  self- 
contradictions  that  are  written  all  over  them  and  woven 
into  every  line  of  them. 

The  first  is  this:  Since  we  have  been  told  countless  times 
all  the  way  through  this  book  that  disease  is  nothing  and 
nonexistent  because  *'Man  is  incapable  of  sickness,"  how 
in  the  world  does  there  come  to  be  so  much  of  it?  And 
why  all  this  pretense  and  pother  of  curing  it?  Since 
disease  is  only  the  imagination  of  *'mortal  mind,"  which 
is  itself  "nothing,"  it  seems  there  is  an  awful  fuss  made 
over  getting  rid  of  something  that  does  not  really  exist, 
or  is  only  the  fiction  of  a  fiction.  Having  **denied"  the 
body  and  shed  it  as  only  a  bad  dream,  why  bother  so 
much  about  it?  Since  there  really  is  no  matter,  how  can 
there  be  anything  the  matter  with  it?  This  puzzle  con- 
stantly stares  us  in  the  face  as  we  read  these  letters 
that  are  saturated  and  dripping  with  diseases  that  these 
persons  were  *'incapable"  of  having. 

And  the  second  strange  thing  is  stranger  still  and  it  is 
this:  The  readers  of  this  book  and  the  writers  of  these 
letters  have  been  taught  that  the  senses  are  utterly  false 
and  not  to  be  believed  on  any  subject.  They  have  been 
assured  that  "the  testimony  of  the  corporeal  senses  cannot 


146        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

inform  us  what  is  real  and  what  is  delusive,"  that  "health 
is  not  a  condition  of  matter,  but  of  Mind;  nor  can  the 
material  senses  bear  reliable  testimony  on  the  subject  of 
health,"  that  "corporeal  sense  defrauds  and  lies,"  that 
"the  evidence  of  the  senses  is  not  to  be  accepted  in  the 
case  of  sickness,"  and  that  "the  so-called  senses  receive  no 
intimation  of  the  earth's  motions  or  of  the  science  of 
astronomy."  If  the  senses  cannot  tell  any  truth  about 
such  big  and  plain  things  as  astronomy  and  the  motions 
of  the  heavenly  bodies  how  much  less  can  they  be  trusted 
to  tell  anything  about  anatomy  and  the  motions  of  our 
organs?  Yet  the  writers  of  these  letters  all  appeal  to 
their  senses,  first,  to  show  what  diseases  they  did  have, 
and,  second,  to  prove  that  they  don't  have  them  now  and 
never  did  have  them.  How  did  they  know  that  they 
had  these  broken  arms  and  fibroid  tumors  and  cataracts 
in  their  eyes?  They  say  that  they  saw  these  things,  but 
such  testimony  "is  not  to  be  accepted  in  the  case  of 
sickness'*  and  is  branded  as  fraudulent  and  "lies"  in  the 
book.  Having  thrown  the  senses  out  of  court  as  prevari- 
cators, how  can  they  now  bring  them  back  in  again  to 
prove  both  their  diseases  and  their  cures? 

The  ways  of  the  Christian  Science  mind  are  past 
finding  out.  Yet  the  writers  of  these  letters  never  seem 
to  be  aware  of  these  self-contradictions  and  absurdities. 
It  is  only  a  step  or  a  slip  from  idealism  or  spiritualism 
into  materialism,  and  these  two  contradictions  illustrate 
the  fact  that  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  followers,  with  all  their 
affirmation  of  "Mind"  as  the  only  reality  and  in  spite  of 
all  their  denial  of  and  aversion  to  "matter,"  are  yet 
deeply  mired  in  materialism,  and  in  all  their  teaching  and 
practice  they  are  constantly  struggling  with  this  "too. 


"SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH":  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK    147 

too  solid  flesh,"  which  will  not  melt  and  vanish  at  their 
bidding. 

Some  additional  opinions  of  this  book  by  other  students 
of  it  are  here  appended  in  conclusion  to  this  chapter. 
The  author  has  already  referred  to  and  quoted  from  *'The 
Interpretation  of  Life,"  by  Gerhardt  Mars,  who  strongly 
supports  Mrs.  Eddy's  claims,  and  yet  he  writes  as  follows: 

The  first  reading  of  her  chief  work,  "Science  and  Health  with  Key 
to  the  Scriptures,"  leaves  the  impression,  in  spite  of  much  that  is 
strikingly  beautiful  and  true,  that  there  is  a  prevailing  tone  of  in- 
coherence, contradiction,  illogicality,  and  arbitrary,  dictatorial 
assertion,  with  no  regard  for  evident  fact  either  in  the  realm  of 
objective  nature  or  history. 

Robert  Hugh  Benson,  a  Roman  Catholic  dignitary, 
wrote  as  follows: 

It  is  impossible  to  describe  the  confusion  of  mind  that  falls  upon 
the  student  of  "Science  and  Health".  .  .  The  quasiphilosophical 
phraseology  of  the  book,  the  abuse  of  terms,  the  employment  of 
ambiguous  words  at  crucial  points,  the  character  of  the  exegesis, 
the  broken-backed  paradoxes,  the  astonishing  language,  the  egotism 
— all  these  things  and  many  more  end  by  producing  in  the  mind  a 
symptom  resembling  that  which  neuritis  produces  in  the  body, 
namely  a  sense  that  an  agonizing  abnormality  is  somewhere  about, 
whether  in  the  writings  or  in  the  reader  is  uncertain. ^ 

Stephen  Paget,  M.  D.,  in  his  book  *'The  Faith  and 
Works  of  Christian  Science,"  quotes  the  opinions  of 
several  writers  of  which  a  brief  extract  follows: 

Dr.  Polk,  Dean  of  the  Medical  Department,  Cornell  University: 
Take  "Science  and  Health,"  separate  yourself  from  disturbing  sur- 
roundings, open  its  pages  with  a  mind  even  somewhat  prejudiced, 
set  yourself  seriously  to  the  task  of  comprehending  its  various 
iterations  and  reiterations,  its  statements  backward,  its  statements 
forward,  its  statements  sidewise,  and  every  other  wise,  of  its  initial 

1  The  Dublin  Review,  July,  1908,  reprinted  in  his  Book  of  Essays. 


148        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

proposition,  throughout  its  569  pages,  and  I  know  there  are  many  of 
you  who,  long  before  you  had  fathomed  its  depths,  would  find 
yourself  in  a  state  of  mental  vacuity  fit  for  the  action  of  "suggestion." 

Dean  Hart,  of  the  University  of  Denver:  I  have  found  that 
"Science  and  Health"  is  the  best  mode  of  inducing  the  mesmeric 
sleep  I  have  ever  experienced.  The  repetition  of  senseless  sentences, 
with  constantly  changing  signification  of  words,  whose  new  meanings 
have  to  be  gleaned  from  the  context,  produces  a  strange  maze  which 
dazes  the  mind  and  produces  a  mesmeric  condition. 

Rev.  P.  C.  Woolcott:  What  really  happens  when  you  attack  these 
tiresome  monotonous  pages,  is  this:  you  struggle  at  first  to  master 
the  diflaculties  and  get  at  the  meaning.  If  you  become  convinced 
that  it  is  not  worth  the  effort,  you  dismiss  the  matter  from  your 
mind,  and  that  is  the  end  of  it.  But  if  you  force  yourself  to  the 
task,  and  pore  over  the  pages,  you  soon  fall  into  a  condition  of 
mental  dizziness  or  vertigo.  The  reasoning  faculties  are  benumbed, 
your  critical  judgment  is  lulled  to  sleep,  and  suggestion  dominates 
the  intellect. 

M.  Carta  Sturge,  *'after  ten  years'  study  of  the  book," 
says: 

I  have  met  with  extraordinary  difllculty  to  get  a  connected  idea  of 
the  contents  of  "Science  and  Health,"  owing  to  one  of  its  most 
striking  characteristics,  namely,  its  entire  want  of  sequence,  both  in 
thought  and  in  expression.  It  abounds  in  contradictions,  not  only 
to  be  found  on  the  same  page,  the  same  paragraph,  the  same  sentence, 
but  often  between  two  words  used  consecutively.  We  have  never 
read  a  book  which  attempted  to  be  a  scientifically  sound  system 
which  is  so  full  of  glaring  contradictions,  and  in  which  the  conclusions 
were  so  absolutely  disconnected  from  the  premises.  Unfortunately 
their  rendering  of  truth  has  been  given  with  such  an  entire  want  of 
sense  and  logic  that  when  read  in  the  light  of  ordinary  intelligence 
it  reads  as  entire  nonsense,  and  a  beautiful  ideal  and  a  great  truth 
has  been  rendered  ridiculous,  whilst  the  minds  of  Christians  in 
general  have  been  shocked. ^ 

Such  a  consensus  of  opinions  from  competent  judges, 
which  might  be  indefinitely  extended,  is  strong  evidence 
as  to  the  unreadableness  and  irrationality  of  this  queer 
book. 

1  The  Truth  and  Error  of  Christian  Science,  pp.  viii,  ix. 


CHAPTER   VII 
CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  TEACHING 

On  the  basis  of  the  contents  of  "Science  and  Health" 
as  it  has  been  summarized  and  as  supplemented  by  the 
other  writings  of  the  same  author,  we  may  now  state 
and  examine  the  main  points  of  Christian  Science  teaching. 

1.  ITS  FUNDAMENTAL  DENIALS 

Christian  Science  is  based,  first  on  the  denial  of  matter, 
sickness,  suffering,  pleasure,  sin,  and  death.  These 
denials  expressed  in  the  most  unequivocal  and  positive 
terms  are  found  on  almost  every  page  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
writings  and  are  repeated  wearisomely  an  incredible 
number  of  times.  The  author  has  estimated,  on  the  basis 
of  the  average  number  of  reiterations  on  each  page,  that  in 
one  or  another  form  this  denial  occurs  in  * 'Science  and 
Health"  at  least  three  thousand  times;  and  in  all  her 
writings  it  may  be  asserted  not  less  than  ten  thousand 
times.  One  writer,  giving  his  impression  of  this  endless 
repetition,  says  that  Mrs.  Eddy  has  made  this  denial 
*'for  the  millionth  time."  It  is  her  obsession  and  her 
demon  and  it  never  leaves  her  for  one  moment. 

(1)  Denial  of  Matter.  **Matter"  in  Christian  Science 
is  another  name  for  * 'mortal  mind"  and  is  declared  to 
be  a  "myth,"  a  "delusion,"  and  "nothing."  This  is 
not  the  doctrine  of  philosophical  idealism,  as  held  by 
Berkeley,  Lotze,  Paulsen,  Bowne,  Royce,  and  many  other 

149 


150        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

thinkers  from  Plato  down  to  our  day.  Mrs.  Eddy  her- 
self says:  * 'Those  who  formerly  sneered  at  it  as  foolish 
and  eccentric  now  declare  Bishop  Berkeley,  David  Hume, 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  and  certain  German  Philosophers, 
or  some  unlearned  mesmerist,  to  have  been  the  real 
originators  of  Mind  Healing."  She,  however,  disclaims 
this  origin  and  she  is  right  in  this.  She  proceeds:  * 'Emer- 
son's ethics  are  models  of  their  kind;  but  even  that  good 
man  and  genial  philosopher  partially  lost  his  mental 
faculties  before  his  death,  showing  that  he  did  not  under- 
stand the  Science  of  Mind  Healing  as  elaborated  in  my 
'Science  and  Health*;  nor  did  he  pretend  to  do  so.'*  It 
is  certainly  amusing  to  see  Mrs.  Eddy  thus  patronize 
Emerson,  and  she  is  entirely  correct  when  she  says  that 
he  did  not  "pretend"  to  understand  her  "Science." 

Philosophical  idealism  holds  to  the  objective  reality  of 
matter  as  a  divine  idea  and  mode  of  activity,  but  it  does 
not  at  all  declare  it  is  "nonexistent"  and  "nothing." 
Berkeley  believed  in  the  existence  of  the  objective  world 
as  much  as  anybody,  only  he  conceived  it  as  being  mental 
or  spiritual  in  nature  and  having  its  source  and  seat  in 
the  divine  Mind.  "I  have  never  doubted,"  he  says, 
"that  fire  is  hot  and  that  ice  is  cold."  Of  him  it  has  been 
said:  "No  man  ever  delighted  less  to  expatiate  in  the 
regions  of  the  abstract,  the  impalpable,  the  unknown. 
His  heart  and  soul  clung  with  inseparable  tenacity  to 
the  concrete  realities  of  the  universe. "i  But  Christian 
Science  absolutely  denies  the  existence  of  the  objective 
world  except  as  a  baseless  delusion  of  "mortal  mind,'* 
which    is    itself   another   equally   baseless    delusion.     It 

1  Professor  James  F.  Terrier,  quoted  in  the  article  on  Berkeley  in 
Hastings'  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  TEACHING  151 

abolishes  the  whole  framework  of  nature  and  boldly  de- 
clares that  "there  are  no  vertebrata,  mollusca,  or  radiata." 
This  contradicts  the  plain  testimony  of  the  senses  and 
the  universal  experience  of  mankind,  falsifies  the  mental 
faculties,  and  annihilates  the  material  universe  at  a  blow 
and  with  a  breath.  How  can  Christian  Scientists  keep 
up  this  denial  of  the  objective  world  and  endlessly  repeat 
this  monstrous  untruth?  It  shakes  confidence  in  their 
sincerity  and  sanity. 

Mrs.  Eddy  evidently  had  in  her  mind  a  confused  notion 
of  the  psychological  and  philosophical  distinction  be- 
tween subjective  experience  and  objective  reality,  and 
she  probably  meant  to  make  matter  a  purely  subjective 
idea  in  the  mind  and  deny  it  any  extramental  reality. 
If  she  had  clearly  grasped  this  distinction  and  consist- 
ently stuck  to  it  she  could  have  carried  her  scheme 
through.  1  But  unfortunately  for  her  system  she  upset 
it  and  dug  a  miry  pit  for  herself  by  making  this  idea  in 
the  mind  an  ^'illusion"  and  "delusion"  of  "mortal  mind" 
and  then  making  "mortal  mind"  itself  a  "delusion," 
so  that  she  left  no  reality  for  matter  either  out  of  the  mind 
or  in  it  but  reduced  it  to  "nothingness,"  and  thus  she 
made  her  whole  system  a  delusion  of  a  delusion  and  threw 
it  into  confusion  worse  confounded.  It  was  at  this  point 
that  she  misunderstood  and  perverted  philosophical 
idealism,  and  it  was  this  initial  blunder  that  wrecked 
her  whole  scheme  and  involved  her  in  endless  contra- 
dictions. 

(2)  Denial  of  Sickness.  There  is  no  such  thing  as 
rheumatism,  hernia,  tumor,  insanity,  epilepsy,  cataract, 

1  On  this  point  see  Mrs.  A.  D.  T.  Whitney's  thoughtful  little 
book.  The  Integrity  of  Christian  Science,  pp.  13-16. 


152        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

heart  disease,  cancer,  tuberculosis,  Bright's  disease, 
neurasthenia,  diseased  eyes,  stomach  trouble,  dyspepsia, 
deafness,  diseased  lungs,  rupture,  liver  complaint,  dropsy, 
kidney  disease,  diseased  bowels,  eczema,  catarrh,  spinal 
disease,  asthma,  yet  these  are  the  names  of  diseases 
found  in  the  headings  of  the  letters  on  * 'Fruitage"  in 
"Science  and  Health,"  from  which  their  writers  claim  to 
have  been  cured.  And  yet  these  diseases  are  also  de- 
clared to  be  **delusions"  and  **nothing."  To  say  in  one 
breath  that  they  had  these  "delusions"  and  base  the 
proof  of  this  fact  on  the  evidence  of  their  senses  and  then 
in  the  next  breath  affirm,  "nor  can  the  material  senses 
bear  reliable  testimony  on  the  subject  of  health,"  gives 
no  logical  jolt  or  sense  of  contradiction  to  Christian 
Scientists. 

(3)  Denial  of  Pain  and  Pleasure.  Pain  is  constantly  de- 
clared to  be  a  "delusion"  of  "mortal  mind"  and  "nothing," 
and  pleasure  is  consigned  to  the  same  "nothingness."  It 
is  true  that  at  times  admission  is  made  that  pain  and 
pleasure  exist  as  states  of  "mortal  mind,"  but  none  the 
less  is  the  reality  of  these  states  denied,  and  those  who 
experience  them  are  urged  to  "deny"  them  and  refuse  to 
believe  that  they  have  them.  The  patient  is  told  that 
he  has  no  pain,  but  only  thinks  that  he  has.  The  little 
child,  having  injured  itself,  is  told  that  it  does  not  hurt, 
and  thus  a  falsehood  is  almost  literally  crammed  down 
its  throat  or  forced  into  its  consciousness.  That  we 
should  be  told  and  asked  to  believe  that  we  have  no  pain 
when  agony  may  be  sweeping  through  the  soul  like  flames 
of  fire,  or  that  we  are  experiencing  no  pleasure  when  we 
are  eating  delicious  food  or  quenching  intense  thirst,  or 
are  thrilled  with  the  beauty  of  a  poem  or  a  symphony  or 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  TEACHING  153 

a  sunset,  or  with  the  joy  of  love,  is  to  try  get  us  to  con- 
tradict our  immediate  consciousness  and  surest  knowledge 
and  believe  a  lie,  and  is  incredible  except  when  viewed  as 
the  delusion  of  an  insane  mind  or  wild  fanatic. 

(4)  Denial  of  Sin.  Deeper  still  in  falsity  is  the  Christian 
Science  denial  of  sin.  This  also  is  declared  to  be  mere 
"myth"  and  "nothing."  It  is  said  that  *'man  is  incapable 
of  sin,"  for  he  is  an  "idea"  or  "reflection"  of  God  and  is 
as  sinless  and  impeccable  as  God  himself.  "To  hold 
yourself  superior  to  sin,"  says  this  false  prophetess,  "is 
true  wisdom."  This  contradicts  the  individual  conscience 
of  every  normal  person  and  the  universal  consciousness 
and  conscience  of  mankind.  That  "all  have  sinned,  and 
fall  short  of  the  glory  of  God"  is  not  only  the  express 
teaching  of  Scripture  from  Genesis  to  Revelation,  but  it 
is  also  written  just  as  plainly  in  all  the  histories  and 
stamped  upon  all  the  races  and  classes  and  upon  all  the 
human  conduct  and  character  of  the  world.  "If  we  say 
that  we  have  no  sin,  we  deceive  ourselves,  and  the  truth 
is  not  in  us,"  "and  we  make"  God  "a  liar."  That  any 
man  or  woman,  however  blinded  by  bigotry  or  partisan 
purpose,  should  stand  up  before  the  sorry  spectacle  of 
this  world,  with  all  its  vice  and  crime  and  wickedness  and 
woe,  and  declare  that  there  is  no  sin  and  that  man  cannot 
sin,  passes  belief;  and  yet  Christian  Scientists  are  doing 
this  incredible  thing  every  time  they  read  their  textbook 
and  express  confidence  in  the  founder  of  their  faith. 

(5)  Denial  of  Death.  The  Christian  Science  denial  of 
death  may  strike  us  as  the  extremest  absurdity  of  all 
the  irrationalities  of  this  cult,  but  Mrs.  Eddy  asserts  it 
calmly  and  boldly  without  once  losing  her  composure  or 
moving  a  muscle  of  her  face.     If  she  had  any  sense  of 


154       THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

humor  we  might  think  she  was  not  meaning  to  be  taken 
too  seriously,  but  she  is  always  dead  in  earnest;  and  her 
followers  do  not  balk  or  blink  at  anything  she  says.  It 
is  true  that  all  her  husbands  and  relatives  and  students 
died  in  due  order  and  she  herself  followed  them  in  com- 
mitting this  act  of  mortal  belief  and  delusion,  but  this 
does  not  affect  her  followers.  They  still  unflinchingly 
say  that  death  is  a  * 'mortal  belief"  and  that  if  we  were 
only  not  so  foolish  as  to  believe  it  and  were  to  *'deny"  it 
resolutely,  there  would  be  no  great  enemy  to  fear  and  no 
death  to  die.  But  as  long  as  Christian  Scientists  die  so 
regularly  and  so  unanimously  we  may  be  permitted  to 
*'deny"  their  theory.! 

(6)  Moral  Tendencies  of  These  Denials.  Nothing 
enters  more  deeply  into  life  than  one's  philosophy.  How- 
ever subtle  and  remote  from  practical  affairs  it  may 
seem,  yet  if  it  be  planted  as  a  real  belief  in  the  mind  and 
heart  it  will  inevitably  work  its  logical  tendencies  out  into 
life.  "The  most  practical  and  important  thing  about  a 
man,"  says  Mr.  G.  K.  Chesterton,  *'is  still  his  view  of  the 
universe.  .  .  We  think  the  question  is  not  whether  the 
theory  of  the  cosmos  affects  matters,  but  whether,  in  the 
long  run,  anything  else  affects  them.'* 

What  is  the  practical  tendency  of  these  denials  of 
Christian    Science?     They    first    undermine    the    trust- 

1  Some  Christian  Scientists  actually  hold  that  Mrs.  Eddy  did  not 
die.  After  her  death  the  authorities  of  The  Mother  Church 
published  a  selection  of  editorials  from  various  newspapers,  com- 
menting on  her  death.  Whereupon  Mrs.  Augusta  E.  Stetson,  of 
New  York,  wrote  an  indignant  letter  in  which  she  said  that  such 
admissions  were  contradictory  and  disloyal  to  the  Christian  Science 
teachings  and  declared  in  italics,  "Mary  Baker  Eddy  never  died." 
See  her  book  Give  God  the  Glory,  in  which  she  repeatedly  makes  this 
assertion. 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  TEACHING  155 

worthiness  of  the  human  mind  as  an  organ  of  knowledge. 
They  turn  the  senses,  pains,  and  pleasures  into  false 
reports  of  a  false  world  and  thereby  overthrow  the  most 
familiar  and  necessary  beliefs  and  turn  the  whole  material 
universe  into  a  monstrous  lie.  Nothing  in  the  objective 
world  is  true  as  we  see  and  experience  it,  and  our  very 
souls  are  not  persons  but  only  reflected  ideas  of  a  principle 
which  is  an  impersonal  pantheistic  mind. 

What  effect  will  trying  to  believe  this  have  on  one*s 
sense  of  truth  and  life.^  The  logical  result  of  it  will  be  to 
pervert  one's  intellectual  conscience.  When  Christian 
Scientists  teach  little  children  to  say  that  they  are  not 
hurt  when  their  own  consciousness  asserts  they  are 
suffering  pain,  what  effect  do  they  think  such  teaching 
will  have  on  children's  sense  of  truth?  And  how  can 
Christian  Scientists  keep  on  stultifying  their  senses  and 
their  most  vivid  experience  of  reality  in  suffering  and  sin, 
and  not  blunt  their  conscience  and  blur  the  deepest  and 
sharpest  distinctions  between  truth  and  error?  There  is 
such  a  thing  as  people  so  saturating  their  souls  with  deceit 
and  subverting  their  very  sense  of  truth  that  *'God  sendeth 
them  a  working  of  error,  that  they  should  believe  a  lie" 
(II  Thess.  2:11).  Such  a  fundamental  and  pervasive 
falsity  as  lies  at  the  root  of  Christian  Science  must  pervert 
all  the  intellectual  processes  of  the  mind. 

But  the  denial  of  matter  and  of  sin  cuts  much  deeper 
into  the  moral  tissues  of  life.  It  is  antinomian  in  principle 
and  in  fruit.  This  denial  is  a  very  ancient  doctrine 
and  its  consequences  are  well  known  in  history.  Among 
the  Gnostic  sects  of  the  early  Christian  centuries  were  the 
Manichseans  who  held  that  the  spiritual  being  of  man  was 
unaffected  by  the   action   of  matter,   and  their  morals 


156       THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

were  loose,  and  there  were  also  the  NIcolaltans  (Rev. 
2:6)  who  were  antinomian  libertines.  If  the  flesh  is 
an  illusion  and  sin  is  nothing  the  dividing  line  between 
virtue  and  vice  grows  thin  to  the  vanishing  point,  and  it 
is  then  easy  to  slip  from  the  one  into  the  other.  If  one 
really  holds  to  the  theory  of  the  nonreality  of  sin  it  will 
not  be  difficult  for  his  conscience  to  confuse  the  flesh  and 
the  spirit  and  to  lose  all  sense  of  difference  between  them; 
and,  indeed,  there  is  no  difference  if  *'Good  is  all,  and  all 
is  good."  This  doctrine  has  been  a  menace  to  the  world 
both  outside  and  inside  the  Church  in  all  ages.  Let  a 
man  once  be  obsessed  with  the  belief  that  sin  has  no  reality 
and  is  a  myth,  and  there  is  no  sin,  however  sensual  and 
shocking,  that  he  may  not  commit  without  any  compunc- 
tion of  conscience  or  sense  of  guilt,  for  he  can  say,  with 
Browning's  "Johannes  Agricola  in  Meditation," 

I  have  God's  warrant,  could  I  blend 

All  hideous  sins,  as  in  a  cup. 

To  drink  the  mingled  venoms  up; 
Secure  my  nature  will  convert 

The  draught  to  blossoming  gladness  fast. 

As  to  the  followers  of  this  cult,  we  doubt  not  that  they 
are  generally  people  above  reproach.  But  we  are  dealing 
with  the  logical  tendency  of  their  faith,  and  their  denial 
of  the  reality  of  matter  and  of  sin  has  an  ancient  history 
and  its  record  is  not  good.  It  has  been  prolific  of  evil 
and  it  is  still  a  menace  to  right  thinking  and  good  living. 

2.  THE  PANTHEISM  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Mrs.  Eddy  repeatedly  denies  and  her  followers  repeat 
the  denial  that  her  system  is  pantheistic.  But  her  denials 
cannot  save  her  from  her  self-contradictions  on  this  as 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  TEACHING  157 

on  other  points.  She  is  laboring  under  a  misunderstand- 
ing of  what  pantheism  is,  owing  to  her  ignorance  of  the 
correct  meaning  of  many  terms  which  she  uses  and  to 
her  lack  of  learning  in  general.  She  thinks  that  pantheism 
is  the  theory  that  matter  is  intelligent,  *'mind  in  matter,'* 
as  she  says  countless  times.  But  of  course  this  is  not 
pantheism,  which  is  the  doctrine  of  one  infinite,  eternal, 
impersonal  substance  which  is  the  totality  of  being.  The 
pantheistic  God,  therefore,  has  no  consciousness  and  will 
in  itself,  but  only  such  consciousness  as  appears  in  men, 
who  are  parts  of  the  infinite  substance  or  Absolute, 
related  to  it  as  waves  and  spray  and  foam  are  related  to 
the  sea,  eternally  thrown  up  out  of  it  and  falling  back 
into  it.  This  one  substance  may  be  material  or  spiritual 
in  nature,  and  Mrs.  Eddy's  identification  of  pantheism 
with  "mind  in  matter"  or  with  **corporeality"  is  an  error. 
Now  Mrs.  Eddy's  teaching. is  pantheistic  in  the  true 
sense  of  the  term  in  spite  of  her  denial.  The  evidence 
of  this  runs  through  the  entire  web  and  woof  of  her  writ- 
ings. *'God  is  supreme:  is  Mind;  is  Principle,  not  person: 
includes  all  and  is  reflected  by  all  that  is  real  and  eternal; 
is  Spirit,  and  Spirit  is  infinite,  is  the  only  substance;  is 
the  only  life.  Man  was  and  is  the  idea  of  God;  therefore 
mind  never  can  be  in  man."  This  language  from  one 
of  the  earlier  editions  of  "Science  and  Health"  is  as  pure 
pantheism  as  could  be  expressed  in  words.  Her  favorite 
name  for  God  is  "Principle,"  which  is  a  neuter  noun 
and  which  she  always  treats  as  an  impersonal  term,  never 
using  the  personal  pronoun  "who"  but  always  the  imper- 
sonal pronoun  "which"  in  relation  to  it.  Her  doctrine 
of  prayer  is  pantheistic,  for  she  denies  that  prayer  has 
any  effect  on  God  but  has  only  subjective  influence  on 


158        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

us.  "To  address  Deity  as  a  Person  impedes  spiritual 
progress  and  hides  Truth.'*  Her  doctrine  of  the  nature 
of  man  is  pantheistic,  for  she  repeatedly  declares  that 
man  is  an  **idea"  and  ^'reflection'*  of  God  and  denies 
that  he  has  any  existence  separate  and  apart  from  God. 
Her  doctrine  of  sin  is  pantheistic,  for  she  denies  its  reality. 
Her  fundamental  principle  that  "God  is  all  in  all,  and  all  in 
all  is  God,"  this  being  her  famous  "reversible"  statement 
that  reads  as  well  backward  as  forward,  is  pantheism;  in 
fact  this  statement  is  a  classical  philosophical  definition 
of  pantheism.  It  merges  God  and  the  world  into  one 
being,  which  is  the  sum  total  of  the  universe  in  which 
man  has  no  enduring  personality  and  is  only  a  drop  in 
the  infinite  ocean  and  has  no  more  freedom  and  respon- 
sibility than  a  wave  or  the  wind.  Occidental  pantheism, 
whether  it  regards  the  one  Substance  of  the  totality  of 
being  as  materialistic  or  spiritualistic,  does  not  deny  the 
reality  of  the  objective  world,  whereas  Oriental  pantheism 
resolves  the  objective  world  into  deceitful  appearance  or 
unreal  illusion.  It  is  obvious  that  Mrs.  Eddy's  pantheism, 
with  its  denial  of  the  reality  of  matter  as  being  a  mere 
illusion,  belongs  to  the  Oriental  type  of  pantheism,  es- 
pecially to  that  of  India. 

We  have  not  only  Mrs.  Eddy's  written  teaching  on 
this  point,  but  also  the  testimony  of  her  students  as  to 
her  private  and  more  explicit  instruction.  In  the  suit  that 
she  brought  against  Charles  Stanley,  a  student  whom 
she  had  dismissed  from  her  class,  for  unpaid  tuition, 
Richard  Kennedy  testified: 

I  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  instructions — she  told  me  that  she 
had  expelled  Mr.  Stanley  from  the  class — of  his  incompetency  to 
understand  her  science — that  it  was  impossible  to  convince  him  of 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  TEACHING  159 

the  folly  of  his  times — that  his  faith  in  a  personal  God  and  prayer 
was  such  that  she  could  not  overcome  it — She  used  the  word  "Baptist" 
in  connection  with  him  because  he  was  a  Baptist — but  it  was  the 
same  with  all  the  other  creeds.  So  long  as  they  believed  in  a 
personal  God  and  the  response  to  prayer,  they  could  not  progress  in 
the  scientific  religion — I  performed  the  manipulation  of  Mr.  Stanley 
as  follows:  Mrs.  Eddy  requested  me  to  rub  Mr.  Stanley's  head  and 
to  lay  special  stress  upon  the  idea  that  there  was  no  personal  God, 
while  I  was  rubbing  him.  I  never  entirely  gave  up  my  belief  in  a 
personal  God,  though  my  belief  was  pretty  well  shaken  up.i 


The  moral  tendency  of  pantheism  is  to  dull  conscience 
and  relax  all  sense  of  obligation  and  virtue,  for  it  denies 
sin  and  annuls  freedom  and  responsibility  and  obliterates 
all  distinction  between  good  and  evil  as  being  equally 
determined  and  necessary;  and  whenever  pantheism 
saturates  the  thought  and  life  of  a  people,  as  in  India, 
it  leads  to  unspeakable  moral  degradation. 

3.  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  AND  MARRIAGE 

We  have  already  seen  that  in  ''Science  and  Health** 
Mrs.  Eddy  sets  forth  her  peculiar  views  on  marriage  in 
unmistakable  terms.  Marriage  is  merely  a  temporary 
arrangement  to  be  regarded  only  as  long  as  we  believe  in 
"mortal  mind.'*  "The  human  mind  will  at  length  de- 
mand a  higher  affection,'*  and  "there  will  ensue  a  fer- 
mentation over  this  as  over  many  other  reforms."  Her 
various  statements  are  sugar-coated  with  asseverations 
that  "in  Christian  Science  the  gospel  of  marriage  is  not 
without  the  law,  and  the  solemn  vow  of  fidelity,"  but 
these  cannot  sweeten  her  express  teachings  which  contain 
a  deadly  poison  to  the  marriage  problem.  The  author 
supplements  the  dangerous  views  already  quoted  with 

1  Milmine,   History,  p.  145. 


160        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

even  more  explicit  teaching  as  found  in  her  "Miscellaneous 
Writings'*  as  follows: 

Until  time  matures  human  growth,  marriage  and  progeny  will 
continue  unprohibited  in  Christian  Science.  We  look  to  future 
generations  for  ability  to  comply  with  absolute  Science,  when 
marriage  shall  be  found  to  be  man's  oneness  with  God — the  unity  of 
eternal  Love.  At  present,  more  spiritual  conception  and  education 
of  children  will  serve  to  illustrate  the  superiority  of  spiritual  power 
over  sensuous,  and  usher  in  the  dawn  of  God's  creation,  wherein 
they  neither  marry  nor  are  given  in  marriage,  but  are  as  the  angels. 
To  abolish  marriage  at  this  period,  and  maintain  morality  and 
generation,  would  put  ingenuity  to  ludicrous  shifts;  yet  this  is 
possible  in  Science,  although  it  is  to-day  problematic.  The  time 
cometh,  and  now  is,  for  spiritual  and  eternal  existence  to  be  recog- 
nized and  understood  in  Science.  All  is  Mind.  Human  procreation, 
birth,  life,  and  death  are  subjective  states  of  the  human  erring 
mind;  they  are  the  phenomena  of  mortality,  nothingness,  that 
illustrate  mortal  mind  and  body  as  one,  and  neither  real  and 
eternal.  1 

Let  it  not  be  overlooked  that  while  it  is  admitted  that 
**to  abolish  marriage  at  this  period"  would  result  in 
**ludicrous  shifts,"  nevertheless  it  is  declared  without 
qualification  that  "yet  this  is  possible  in  Science,"  and 
it  is  further  declared  that  "the  time  cometh,  and  now 
is"  when  this  possibility  should  be  "recognized  and 
understood  in  Science."  What  is  this  but  teaching 
that  marriage  might  and  ought  to  be  "abolished"  now 
by  those  that  recognize  and  understand  it  in  Science? 

Mrs.  Eddy  holds  that  "generation  rests  on  no  sexual 
basis,"  and  says:  "The  propagation  of  their  species  by 
butterfly,  bee,  and  moth,  without  the  customary  presence 
of  male  companions,  is  a  discovery  corroborative  of  the 
Science  of  Mind,  because  it  shows  that  the  origin  and 
continuance  of  these  insects  rests  on  Principle  apart  from 

1  Miscellaneous  Writings,  p.  286. 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  TEACHING  161 

material  conditions.'*  Alleging  that  in  the  birth  of  Jesus 
"the  Science  of  being  overshadowed  the  sense  of  the 
Virgin  mother,  with  a  full  recognition  that  Spirit  is  the 
basis  of  being,"  she  calls  "His  birth  what  everyone's 
should  be."  She  says  that  "I  never  knew  more  than  one 
individual  who  believed  in  agamogenesis;  she  was  un- 
married, a  lovely  character,  was  suffering  from  incipent 
insanity,  and  a  Christian  Scientist  cured  her."  "It  is 
well  authenticated,  however,  that  one  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
disciples  some  years  back  took  Mrs.  Eddy's  words  at 
face  value  and  calmly  announced  to  a  wonder-struck 
world  the  immaculate  conception  and  birth  of  a  son."l 

The  extremest  and  most  offensive  statement  on  the 
subject  of  marriage  was  made  by  Mrs.  Eddy  at  the  dedi- 
cation of  her  Boston  church.  Mr.  Peabody  gives  the 
following  account  of  it: 

The  most  impressive  and  conspicuous  incident  in  Christian 
Science  history  was  the  dedication  in  June,  1906,  of  the  "Mother 
Church"  in  Boston,  a  beautiful  building  that  cost  upwards  of  two 
million  dollars.  In  order  to  get  her  views  regarding  marriage  before 
the  faithful,  in  the  most  impressive  manner,  Mrs.  Eddy  incorporated 
them  in  her  message  which  was  read  at  the  church  dedication  cere- 
monies. She  took  the  bit  in  her  teeth,  as  it  were,  and  notwith- 
standing efforts  to  dissuade  her  or  induce  her  to  modify  her  state- 
ment, insisted  upon  getting  her  views  before  her  following  in  their 
most  extreme  and  obnoxious  form,  characterizing  marriage  as 
"synonomous  with  legalized  lust."  It  has  been  denied  by  Mrs. 
Eddy's  press  agents  that  she  gave  utterance  to  this  opinion  of 
marriage;  but  it  will  be  found  in  her  dedication  message  as  published 
in  the  Christian  Science  Sentinel  for  June,  1906,  and  the  Christian 
Science  Journal  for  July,  1906.2 

That  any  respectable  man  or  woman  should  publicly 
stigmatize  the  holy  relation  of  marriage  as  "synonomous 

1  Marsten,  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science^  p.  133. 

2  Masquerade,  p.  165. 


162        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

with  legalized  lust"  is  an  offense  against  one  of  the  most 
sacred  and  vital  institutions  of  the  world. 

In  accordance  with  her  teaching  that  * 'generation  rests 
on  no  sexual  basis,"  Mrs.  Eddy  declares  that  there  is  no 
hereditary  transmission  of  traits  from  parents  to  children. 
In  the  chapter  on  * 'Questions  and  Answers"  in  her  "Mis- 
cellaneous Writings"  she  asks,  "Does  Christian  Science 
set  aside  the  law  of  transmission,  parental  desires,  and 
good  or  bad  influences  on  the  unborn  child?"  and  answers: 

Whatever  is  real  is  right  and  eternal;  hence  the  immutable  and 
just  law  of  Science,  that  God  is  good  only,  and  can  transmit  to  man 
and  the  universe  nothing  evil,  or  unlike  himself.  For  the  innocent 
babe  to  be  born  a  lifelong  sufferer  because  of  his  parents'  mistakes 
or  sins,  were  sore  injustice.  Science  sets  aside  man  as  a  creator, 
and  unfolds  the  eternal  harmonies  of  the  only  living  and  true 
origin,  God.  According  to  the  beliefs  of  the  flesh,  both  good  and 
bad  traits  of  the  parents  are  transmitted  to  their  helpless  offspring, 
and  God  is  supposed  to  impart  to  man  this  fatal  power.  It  is 
cause  for  rejoicing  that  this  belief  is  as  false  as  it  is  remorseless,  l 

Yet  in  direct  contradiction  with  this  teaching  she 
aflSrms,  in  her  textbook,  parental  propensities  are  inherited: 

The  offspring  of  heavenly  minded  parents  must  inherit  more 
intellect,  better  balanced  minds,  and  sounder  constitutions.  If 
some  fortuitous  circumstance  places  spiritual  children  in  the  arras 
of  gross  parents,  these  beautiful  children  early  droop  and  die,  like 
tropical  flowers  born  amid  Alpine  snows.  If  perchance  they  live  to 
become  parents,  in  their  turn  they  may  reproduce  in  their  own 
helpless  little  ones  the  grosser  traits  of  their  ancestors.  What  hope 
of  happiness,  what  noble  ambition  can  inspire  the  child  who  inherits 
propensities  that  must  either  be  overcome  or  reduce  him  to  a  loath- 
some wreck. 

This  is  only  one  among  many  positive  self-contradictions 
that  are  found  in  these  writings. 

1  Miscellaneous  Writings,  pp.  71,  72. 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  TEACHING  163 

This  teaching  on  the  subject  of  marriage  is  not  without 
its  practical  effect  among  Christian  Scientists.  When 
Mrs.  Eddy  asks,  "Is  marriage  nearer  right  than  cehbacy?** 
and  answers,  "Human  knowledge  inculcates  that  it  is, 
while  Science  indicates  that  it  is  not,"  this  cannot  fail 
to  have  some  influence  upon  her  devotees,  and  there 
are  painful  facts  bearing  on  this  point.  To  quote  from 
Mr.  Peabody: 

Mrs.  Eddy,  having  been  married  three  or  four  times,  now  em- 
phatically disapproves  of  marriage,  and  a  marriage  between  Christian 
Scientists  is  decidedly  objectionable.  There  has  never  been  a 
marriage  in  the  Christian  Science  church.  There  is  no  Christian 
Science  ceremony  and  no  Christian  Science  official  authorized  to 
perform  a  marriage.  The  marriage  relation,  as  such,  is  regarded  as 
sensuous  and  impure,  and  the  marriage  of  an  official  of  the  church 
in  any  part  of  the  country  would  mean  instant  loss  of  power  and 
influence  together  with  his  office  and  its  emoluments.  .  .  With 
this  objection  to  marriage  goes  also  the  objection  to  children,  so 
that  the  birth  of  children  in  Christian  Science  families  is  of  rare 
occurrence  and  is  regarded  as  evidence  of  unspiritual  living  and  is 
decidedly  discrediting.  "Sensual  and  mortal  beliefs,  material 
suppositions  of  life,"  Mrs.  Eddy  calls  children.  The  effects  of  this 
teaching  are  shown  in  the  difference  between  Christian  Science  Sun- 
day schools  and  Christian  Sunday  schools.  The  membership  of  the 
Methodist,  Baptist,  and  Presbyterian  Sunday  school  is  about  the 
same  as  their  church  membership;  while  in  Christian  Science  Sunday 
schools  there  is  but  one  child  for  every  five  members. i 

Dr.  Powell  also  asks:  "Why  has  not  The  Mother  Church 
in  Boston,  with  its  seating  capacity  of  five  thousand  and 
its  resident  membership  doubtless  much  larger,  made 
provisions  for  a  larger  Sunday  school  than  one  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  members.'*" 2 

1  Masquerade,  pp.  163,  164. 

2  Christian  Science,  p.  212.  In  the  United  States  Census  of  1906 
the  Christian  Scientists  reported  82,332  members  and  only  16,116 
Sunday-school  scholars.  See  H.  K.  Carroll's  Religious  Forces  of  the 
United  States,  p.  LVIII. 


164        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

What  is  the  effect  of  such  teaching  on  domestic  relations 
in  the  home?  The  author  here  quotes  from  Dr.  L.  P. 
Powell,  who  is  one  of  the  most  thoroughly  informed  and 
most  impartial  writers  on  the  whole  subject  of  Christian 
Science  as  he  made  a  wide  investigation  of  it  and  is  al- 
ways quick  to  Fee  and  acknowledge  the  good  that  is  in  it. 
In  immediate  connection  with  the  testimony  which  follows 
he  says:  *T  know  that  some  families  have  been  blessed  by 
the  conversion  of  their  members  to  Christian  Science. 
I  know  that  a  new  conception  of  the  dignity  and  spiritual 
value  of  self-control  has  been  lodged  in  many  a  mind. 
I  know  that  many  a  husband  has  been  reclaimed  from 
dissipation,  many  a  wife  from  frivolity,  by  the  call  of  the 
spiritual  which  in  spite  of  all  its  errors  does  echo  from 
'Science  and  Health,'"  One  who  writes  in  this  spirit 
can  be  trusted  when  he  testifies  as  follows: 


I  could  give  instances — for  I  have  made  inquiries  far  and  wide — 
in  which  families  that  have  for  long  years  known  only  happiness  and 
concord  have  suddenly  become  the  prey  of  discord  and  division,  in 
which  the  love  of  husbands  for  wives  and  fathers  for  children  has 
dissolved  into  an  unfortunate  aloofness,  in  which  wives  have  ceased, 
except  in  name,  to  live  as  wives,  and  mothers  have  come  to  think  of 
children  as  millstones  round  their  necks,  in  which  daughters  have 
ceased  to  be  daughters  except  before  the  world,  and  sisters  have 
separated  for  all  time  from  sisters  who  declined  to  go  with  them  into 
Christian  Science,  in  which  lovers  have  broken  their  engagement 
and  friends  have  given  up  their  lifelong  friendship  for  no  reason 
save  a  difference  in  the  point  of  view  concerning  what  is  nothing 
after  all  except  a  problem  in  pure  metaphysics.  ^ 

The  doctrine  that  marriage  is  "synonomous  with 
legalized  lust'*  and  that  in  this  world  "the  human  mind  will 
at  length  demand  a  higher  affection"  and  "man  must 

1  Christian  Science,  pp.  204,  205. 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  TEACHING  165 

find  permanence  and  peace  in  a  more  spiritual  adherence" 
may  at  first  sight  seem  to  lend  itself  to  purity  and  be  a 
reenforcement  in  the  battle  of  the  spirit  against  the  flesh. 
But  flesh  and  spirit  lie  close  together  and  it  is  but  a  slip 
from  the  one  into  the  other.  Human  experience  bears 
abundant  witness  that  all  theories  of  "perfection"  and 
"entire  sanctification"  are  attended  with  the  danger  of 
lapse  into  sensuality.  "Wherefore  let  him  that  thinketh 
he  standeth  take  heed  lest  he  fall."  The  early  Christian 
churches  were  plagued  and  scandalized  with  various 
Gnostic  sects  that  proclaimed  the  "nothingness"  of  matter 
and  of  sin  and  then  practiced  the  grossest  immorality. 
The  Christian  Science  doctrine  of  marriage  has  in  it 
this  poisonous  germ.  People  that  believe  that  the  mar- 
riage relation  should  be  displaced  by  "a  higher  affection" 
and  "a  more  spiritual  adherence"  will  not  find  it  difficult 
to  believe  that  they  are  so  far  advanced  in  "Science" 
that  they  can  make  the  substitution.  In  plain  truth, 
"a  more  spiritual  adherence"  may  easily  slip  into  free  love. 

Mrs.  Josephine  Curtis  Woodbury,  who  was  once  a 
leader  in  the  Christian  Science  movement  and  "emerged," 
to  use  her  own  words,  "from  the  toils  after  many  years 
of  close  association  with  the  head  of  the  new  church," 
referring  to  marriage  in  her  article  in  the  Arena  for  May, 
1899,  says:  "One  may  well  hesitate  to  touch  on  this 
delicate  topic  in  print,  yet  only  thus  can  the  immoral 
possibilities  and  the  utter  lack  of  divine  inspiration  in 
'Christian  Science'  be  shown." 

The  author  closes  the  study  of  the  Christian  Science 
doctrine  of  marriage  by  quoting  the  view  of  Dr.  Francis 
E.  Marsten,  a  careful  and  conscientious  student  of  the 
system : 


166        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Call  the  flesh  an  "illusion"  if  you  please,  call  the  life  of  earth  a 
dream  life,  all  its  most  sacred  relations  only  phantoms  and  shadows, 
educate  the  young  into  the  belief  that  sin  is  nothing,  and  when 
the  moving  pictures  of  the  sensuous  life  enter  with  the  lusts  of  the 
carnal  nature,  it  will  be  nothing  strange  if  the  dream  of  the  Nico- 
laitans  of  the  first  century  is  -dreamed  over  again  in  this  twentieth 
century.  These  doctrines  touching  on  marriage  promulgated  by 
the  "Mother"  are  so  subtle  and  insidious  that  they  constitute  a 
formidable  menace  to  social  well-being.  They  strike  not  at  a 
human,  but  at  a  divine  institution. i 


4.  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINES 

Christian  Science,  though  it  started  only  as  a  method 
of  mind  healing,  rapidly  developed  into  a  religion  with  a 
church  and  a  creed  and  an  elaborate  system  of  theology. 
It  is  also  professedly  a  form  of  the  Christian  religion, 
and,  indeed,  it  proclaims  itself  to  be  a  later  and  completer 
and  even  the  final  and  perfect  form.  It  apparently  ac- 
cepts the  Bible  and  Christ  and  God  after  the  Christian 
manner,  and  an  uncritical  reader  of  the  textbook  and 
bible  of  this  new  religion  in  his  unsophisticated  innocence 
might  think  that  it  is  only  another  if  not  improved  form 
of  Christianity,  only  one  Christian  denomination  more. 
Do  not  Christian  Scientists  read  the  Bible  and  pray  in 
their  churches?  And  is  it  not,  then,  sectarian  narrowness 
and  bigotry  on  the  part  of  Christian  churches  that  they 
do  not  recognize  Christian  Science  churches  as  being 
of  the  same  faith? 

But  there  is  abundant  reason  for  the  fact  that  Christian 
churches  do  not  recognize  Christian  Science  churches 
as  being  in  any  true  sense  Christian.  This  is  not  at  all 
an  attitude  and  spirit  of  bigotry  and  uncharity,  but  is 
only  an  honest  recognition  of  a  plain  fact.  Mrs.  Eddy 
herself  repudiates  the  historical  form  of  Christianity  as 

^  The  Mask  of  Christian  Science,  p.  130. 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  TEACHING  167 

utterly  bound  up  with  "mortal  mind"  and  therefore 
false,  and  she  and  her  church  will  have  no  part  or  lot 
with  it.  Christians  and  Christian  Scientists  cannot 
walk  together  because  they  do  not  agree  in  any  distinct- 
ively Christian  doctrine.  The  whole  Christian  system  is 
accepted  by  these  two  parties  in  fundamentally  different 
senses  that  are  utterly  exclusive  of  each  other.  In  a  word, 
Christian  Science  drives  a  dislocating  plowshare  through 
the  Bible  from  Genesis  to  Revelation  and  leaves  it  a 
different  book  in  every  word  and  idea.  It  is  not  simply  a 
variant  form  of  historic  Christianity,  but  it  is  another 
and  antagonistic  religion  as  far  removed  from  Christianity 
as  is  Buddhism,  with  which,  indeed,  it  has  close  affinities. 
Christian  Science  really  denies  every  Christian  fact  and 
perverts  and  falsifies  every  Christian  doctrine,  in  the 
sense  in  which  these  facts  and  doctrines  have  universally 
been  and  still  are  understood  by  the  Church  catholic 
and  the  Christian  world.  This  has  already  been  seen 
in  detail,  and  the  author  will  now  only  briefly  recapitulate 
its  teaching  on  these  fundamental  doctrines. 

(1)  Its  doctrine  of  God  is  pantheism,  for  it  denies  the 
personality  of  God,  declaring  "God  is  not  person"  but 
"God  is  Principle,"  a  name  as  impersonal,  to  use  Mrs. 
Eddy's  own  analogy,  as  "the  principle  of  mathematics," 
merging  God  with  the  totality  of  being  or  the  universe, 
and  rendering  him  inaccessible  to  prayer;  and  thus  God 
is  lost  in  a  pantheistic  world  and  religion  is  cut  up  by  the 
roots. 

There  is  usually  an  element  of  truth  lurking  behind  Mrs. 
Eddy's  confused  statements,  and  the  truth  in  her  oft- 
repeated  assertion  that  "God  is  infinite,  the  only  Life, 
Substance,  Spirit,  or  Soul,  the  only  intelligence  in  the 


168       THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

universe,  including  man,"  Is  that  God  is  the  only  absolute 
One  who  has  existence  in  himself.  But  he  has  also  created 
the  universe  and  finite  spirits,  who  have  relative  being 
dependent  on  him;  yet  they  are  separate  from  him  and 
are  not  to  be  included  or  merged  in  him. 

(2)  Its  doctrine  of  creation  is  pantheistic.  It  rep- 
resents the  whole  creation  as  being  simply  an  unfolding 
of  God.  *'This  creation  consists  of  the  unfolding  of 
spiritual  ideas  and  their  identities,  which  are  embraced 
in  the  infinite  Mind  and  forever  reflected.  These  ideas 
range  from  infinitesimal  to  infinity,  and  the  highest 
ideas  are  the  sons  and  daughters  of  God."  Man  is  the 
*'idea"  and  "reflection"  of  God,  and  he  *'is  incapable  of 
sin." 

How,  then,  did  "matter"  arise  in  this  purely  divine 
universe  and  how  did  "mortal  mind"  originate  in  man 
who  is  an  idea  of  God?  We  are  asked  to  believe  that 
the  second  chapter  of  Genesis  "contains  a  statement 
of  this  material  view  of  God  and  the  universe;"  and  this 
statement  "Is  a  lie"!  "There  went  up  a  mist  from  the 
earth,"  and  this  mist  is  the  origin  of  "matter"  and  of 
"mortal  mind."  But  even  granting  this  dogmatic  as- 
sumption, how  did  the  "mist"  originate  in  a  world  that  was 
simply  the  "unfolding  of  spiritual  ideas,"  or  of  God.?  Mrs. 
Eddy  tells  us  that  matter,  sickness,  suffering,  sin,  and 
death  are  all  "delusions"  that  arise  out  of  "mortal  mind": 
but  how  did  "mortal  mind"  arise,  especially  in  a  world 
in  which  "God  is  all"  and  "all  is  good"?  "Where  the 
spirit  of  God  is,  and  there  is  no  place  where  God  is  not, 
evil  becomes  nothing."  Then  how  in  such  a  world  or 
rather  in  such  a  God  did  "mortal  mind"  get  started? 
Mrs.   Eddy   does   not   tell   us.     Here   Is  an   unplumbed 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  TEACHING  169 

mystery  in  her  system  of  interpretation  on  which  she 
throws  no  Hght  and  of  which  she  does  not  appear  to  be 
aware.  She  cannot  fall  back  upon  the  Scriptural  doctrine 
that  "God  made  man  upright;  but  they  have  sought  out 
many  inventions"  (Eccl.  7:29),  for  in  her  scheme  man  in 
his  pristine  purity  was  an  idea  of  God  "incapable  of  sin." 
How  original  man  ever  got  this  dreadful  thing  she  calls 
"mortal  mind"  and  just  what  its  relation  to  man  is,  are 
insoluble  puzzles  in  her  system  that  must  be  left  in  the 
same  heap  with  her  other  self-contradictions. 

(3)  Its  doctrine  of  man  is  also  pantheistic,  for  it 
reduces  man  to  an  idea  or  reflection  of  God  and  denies 
that  man  has  any  personality  and  existence  apart  from 
God.  Though  Mrs.  Eddy  denies  that  she  is  a  pantheist, 
because  she  ignorantly  confuses  pantheism  with  "a  belief 
in  the  intelligence  of  matter,"  yet  she  is  just  as  certainly 
a  thoroughgoing  pantheist  as  Spinoza  himself. 

(4)  Its  doctrine  of  Christ  is  a  strange  dualism,  unheard 
of  in  all  the  heresies  of  Church  history,  according  to  which 
Jesus  is  "the  highest  human  corporeal  concept  of  the 
divine  idea,"  apparently  meaning  God,  incarnated  in 
"mortal  mind,"  and  Christ  is  "the  divine  manifestation 
of  God,  which  comes  to  the  flesh  to  destroy  incarnate 
error."  Such  a  "concept"  leads  us  to  suspect  that  she 
has  taken  away  our  Lord  and  we  know  not  where  to  look 
for  him. 

(5)  Its  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  grotesque  and 
abhorrent,  for  it  identifies  the  Holy  Spirit  with  "Divine 
Science." 

(6)  Its  doctrine  of  matter,  sickness,  suffering,  sin, 
and  death  is  an  utter  denial  of  the  reality  of  these  things 
except  as  pure  delusions  or  false  beliefs  of  "mortal  mind" 


170        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

which  is  itself  a  false  state  of  belief,  and  thereby  it  falsifies 
our  senses  and  our  most  primary  intuitions  and  surest 
forms  of  knowledge  and  blows  the  universe  into  nothing- 
ness with  a  single  breath  of  denial.  Such  a  monstrous 
absurdity  is  contradicted  not  only  by  all  our  philosophy, 
science,  psychology,  and  ethics,  but  also  by  the  express 
and  implied  teachings  of  the  Bible  from  the  first  verse 
to  the  last.  On  this  theory  sin  is  only  a  bad  dream  and 
all  we  need  do  to  get  rid  of  it  is  to  stab  ourselves  broad 
awake.  This  doctrine  of  the  nothingness  of  matter 
and  of  sin  is  of  ancient  Gnostic  lineage  and  it  has  lost 
none  of  its  antinomian  tendency.  It  is  allied  to  the  pan- 
theistic doctrine  of  illusion  that  saturates  the  Orient  and 
is  so  productive  of  immorality.  This  denial  of  the  very 
possibility  of  sin  logically  sweeps  away  all  barriers  against 
the  flesh  and  opens  the  gates  for  sensuality  to  flood  the 
soul.  If  Christian  Scientists  do  not  give  way  to  this 
tendency  it  is  because  they  are  better  than  their 
doctrine. 

(7)  Its  doctrine  of  prayer  reduces  prayer  to  a  state 
of  silent  meditation  which  cannot  affect  God  but  only 
influences  man.  "God  is  not  influenced  by  man."  Such 
a  prayer  is  only  a  soliloquy  and  becomes  impossible  after 
the  secret  of  its  true  nature  is  once  discovered.  One 
cannot  really  pray  to  "Principle"  any  more  than  to  "the 
principle  of  mathematics,"  or  to  the  precession  of  the 
equinoxes. 

(8)  Its  doctrine  of  the  atonement  is  a  purely  moral 
influence  theory,  declaring  that  "the  atonement  of  Christ 
reconciles  man  to  God,  not  God  to  man."  Such  an 
atonement  makes  no  real  provision  for  the  divine  for- 
giveness of  sin,  and  there  appears  to  be  no  such  forgiveness 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  TEACHING  171 

in  Christian  Science,  for  "to  remit  the  penalty  due  for 
sin,  would  be  for  Truth  to  pardon  error."     "Sin  is  not 
forgiven;   we   cannot   escape   its   penalty.   .    .   Suffering 
for  sin  is  all  that  destroys  it."     Even  in  The  Lord's 
Prayer  the  petition,  "Forgive  us  our  debts,"  is  bleached 
into  the  colorless  sentiment,  "Love  is  reflected  in  love." 
And  so  there  is  no  real  gospel  in  Christian  Science,  no 
good  news  of  an  atoning  Saviour  and  a  forgiving  Father. 
(9)     Its   doctrine   of  ordinances  rejects  baptism  and 
wounds  and  insults  the  Founder  of  Christianity  by  setting 
aside  the  Last  Supper  which  he  instituted  with  his  dis- 
ciples and  commanded  all  his  followers,  "This  do  in  remem- 
brance of  me,"  the  most  precious  ordinance  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  and  presumes  to  substitute  for  it  the  cele- 
bration of  the  "morning  breakfast"  at  which  Jesus  was 
present  with  his  disciples  on  the  shore  of  Galilee.     But 
even  this  parody  of  a  "Communion  Service"  was  dis- 
continued by  Mrs.  Eddy  in  her  Mother  Church  in  Boston 
in  1908.     It  was,  indeed,  an  ordinance  better  honored 
in  the  breach  than  in  the  observance. 

(10)  Its  doctrine  of  marriage  discredits  this  union 
as  a  temporary  condescension  to  an  infirmity  of  "mortal 
mind,"  which  is  really  to  be  gotten  rid  of  as  soon  as 
possible  as  being  "synonomous  with  legalized  lust"  and 
to  be  replaced  by  those  who  are  versed  in  "Science"  with 
"a  higher  affection"  and  "a  more  spiritual  adherence"; 
a  doctrine  which  is  logically  subversive  of  the  holy 
relation  of  marriage  and  tends  to  moral  laxity. 

(11)  Its  doctrine  of  the  Bible  is  that  it  is  to  be  in- 
preted  in  "a  metaphysical  sense"  according  to  which 
everything  means  something  wholly  different  from  what 
the   words   naturally   mean   and   from   what   the   entire 


172        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Christian  world  has  always  believed  and  ever  will  believe 
they  do  mean,  and  which  turns  all  the  sense  and  sanity 
of  the  book  into  absurdities  as  false  and  grotesque  as 
the  absiu-dities  of  Christian  Science  itself. 

(12)  Its  doctrine  of  healing  is  that  mind,  meaning 
the  mind  of  God,  destroys  disease  as  a  mere  illusion 
or  nothing.  This  is  a  form  of  mind  cure  which  will  be 
considered  in  a  later  chapter. 

(13)  Its  doctrine  of  eschatology.  *'Eschatology"  is 
another  word  we  have  not  found  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  writings, 
and  if  she  had  lighted  on  it,  it  would  surely  have  been 
another  sonorous  polysyllable  in  her  vocabulary  as  de- 
lectable to  her  as  **the  blessed  word  Mesopotamia"  was 
to  Mrs.  Partington.  But  though  she  knows  not  the  word 
yet  she  has  the  thing,  and  her  eschatology  is  as  peculiar 
and  pantheistic  as  the  rest  of  her  scheme.  As  regards 
this  world,  she  looks  forward  to  a  time  when  marriage 
will  be  superseded  by  *'a  more  spiritual  adherence," 
when  children  will  be  produced  without  sexual  union, 
and  when  death  itself  will  cease  to  act  as  a  fatal  delusion 
of  mortal  mind. 

As  regards  the  other  world  or  final  state,  Mrs.  Eddy 
says  that  the  corporeal  senses  and  all  sense  knowledge 
and  pleasure  and  pain  will  vanish  along  with  the  bad 
dream  of  the  body  and  the  spirit  will  survive  as  an  idea 
of  God,  having  no  personality  or  existence  apart  from 
God.  What  sort  of  existence  this  would  be  we  cannot 
tell,  but  it  would  appear  that  it  cannot  have  any  con- 
sciousness and  certainly  no  personality.  All  things  will 
dissolve  into  their  original  Principle,  the  clouds  and  mist 
and  raindrops  will  go  back  into  the  eternal  sea  out  of 
which  they  came,  pantheism  will  have  its  perfect  work 


CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  TEACHING  173 

and  end,  or  rather  it  will  keep  up  its  eternal  round  of 
impersonal  and  fatalistic  change. 

Such  is  the  way  Christian  Science  perverts  Christian 
doctrines  and  gives  us  for  bread  a  stone,  and  for  fish  a 
serpent.  Probably  few  people  outside  of  the  Christian 
Science  churches  know  what  a  destructive  and  absurd 
system  of  doctrine  it  is,  innocently  thinking  it  is  only  a 
harmless  vagary;  and  it  must  be  the  fact  that  many  people 
in  the  Christian  Science  churches  are  but  little  better 
informed  as  to  the  true  teaching  of  the  system,  not  having 
read  for  themselves  or  really  understood  their  obscure  and 
mystifying  textbook. 

This  is  the  cult  that  is  called  "Christian  Science," 
the  * 'so-called  Christian  Science"  which  Professor  G.  T. 
Ladd  brands  as  "an  almost  equally  grotesque  mixtm'e 
of  crude  pantheism,  misunderstood  psychological  and 
philosophical  truths,  and  truly  Christian  beliefs  and 
conceptions."!  If  all  the  vocabularies  of  all  languages 
had  been  ransacked  for  a  name,  two  more  inappropriate 
words  could  not  have  been  found  to  be  applied  to  this 
system;  and  it  is  a  pity  and  scandal  that  two  of  the  most 
significant  and  noblest  words  in  the  English  tongue  should 
have  been  prostituted  to  the  ignoble  use  of  naming  this 
false  religion  and  scientific  monstrosity.  As  Voltaire  said 
of  the  "Holy  Roman  Empire"  that  it  was  not  an  empire 
and  was  not  Roman  and  was  not  holy,  so  must  it  be  said 
of  Christian  Science  that  it  is  not  science  and  it  is  not 
Christian. 

1  Philosophy  of  Religion,  vol.  I,  p.  167. 


CHAPTER  Vni 

THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH 

When  Mrs.  Eddy  began  to  teach  her  system  of  mind 
cure  she  had  no  thought  of  founding  a  reUgion  and  a 
church.  The  title  of  her  book  "Science  and  Health" 
shows  this,  the  addition  "With  Key  to  the  Scriptures" 
being  an  afterthought  which  was  added  in  1884,  several 
years  after  she  began  to  dream  of  the  day  when  the"  church 
bells  would  ring  in  her  honor.  She  not  only  had  no 
thought  of  a  church,  but  she  expressly  declared  against 
such  an  institution. 

It  is  true,  however,  that  she  began  to  organize  her  work 
at  an  early  date,  for  she  was  farseeing  enough  to  know 
that  it  could  not  grow  and  last  unless  it  had  an  organized 
form. 

1.  FOUNDING  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST  SCIENTIST 

In  June,  1875,  eight  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  students  met 
together  under  the  name  of  "the  Christian  Scientists" 
and  subscribed  money  to  have  her  address  them  each 
Sunday,  and  in  July  of  the  next  year  they  formed  "The 
Christian  Scientists'  Association."  These  loose  associa- 
tions, however,  did  not  meet  the  needs  of  Mrs.  Eddy  and 
her  students.  Her  followers  were  practically  all  from 
Christian  churches,  and  they  found  the  air  of  a  mere 
metaphysical  association  too  thin  and  cold  to  supply 
their  emotional  and  religious  demands.      Mrs.  Eddy,  who 

174 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  175 

was  always  an  opportunist  and  was  quick  to  see  and 
adapt  herself  to  new  situations,  responded  with  alacrity 
to  the  call  of  the  hour.  In  fact,  this  turn  of  affairs  gave 
her  a  new  idea  and  one  that  dominated  her  whole  after 
life. 

In  1879  she  founded  her  first  church  organization, 
naming  it  'The  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,"  a  charter 
being  applied  for  on  August  6  of  that  year.  All  these 
proceedings  were  conducted  secretly  so  as  not  to  come  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  * 'mesmerists"  Spofford  and  Kennedy, 
even  care  being  taken  to  select  a  notary  before  whom  the 
papers  could  be  signed  who  could  be  vouched  for  by  one 
of  the  members  as  having  no  affiliation  with  these  danger- 
ous people.  1  The  purpose  of  the  corporation  was  stated 
to  be  "to  carry  on  and  transact  the  business  necessary  to 
the  worship  of  God,"  Boston  was  named  as  the  place  where 
the  church  was  to  be  located,  and  there  were  twenty-six 
charter  members. 

For  sixteen  months  the  church  had  no  regular  place 

of  meeting  and  services  were  held  in  the  homes  of  various 

members   in   Lynn   and   Boston.     The   minutes   of   the 

meetings  show  that  attendance  at  these  early  services 

was  very  small,  sometimes  falling  as  low  as  four  or  five. 

The  service  consisted  of  silent  prayer  or  Mrs.    Eddy's 

interpretation  of  The  Lord's  Prayer  and  readings  from 

"Science  and  Health"  and  from  the  Scriptures.     Mrs. 

Eddy  usually  delivered  an  address,  her  subject  frequently 

being  "mesmerism."     The  record  for  September  5,  1880, 

reads  as  follows : 

1  The  facts  as  to  the  founding  of  the  Christian  Science  Church  are 
mostly  taken  from  Milmine,  History,  ch.  XIV,  and  from  Mrs. 
Eddy's  "Historical  Sketch"  found  in  the  Manual  of  the  Mother 
Church, 


176        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Meeting  opened  by  Mrs.  Damon  in  the  usual  way.  Mrs.  M.  B.  G. 
Eddy,  having  completed  her  summer  vacation,  was  present  and 
delivered  a  discourse  on  Mesmerism.  Whole  number  in  attendance, 
twenty-two. 

The  record  shows  that  the  subject  on  the  following 
Sunday  was  again  "Mesmerism."  On  December  12, 
1880,  the  Christian  Scientists  began  to  hold  their  services 
in  Hawthorne  Hall  on  Park  Street,  Boston,  and  the  follow- 
ing passage  from  Miss  Milmine's  * 'History"  gives  an  in- 
teresting picture  of  these  meetings: 

Mrs.  Eddy  usually  preached  and  conducted  the  services,  though 
occasionally  one  of  her  students  took  her  place,  and  now  and  again 
a  minister  of  some  other  denomination  was  invited  to  occupy  the 
pulpit.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  she  was  always  effective  on  the 
rostrum,  Mrs.  Eddy  seemed  to  dread  these  Sunday  services.  The 
necessity  for  wearing  glasses  embarrassed  her.  When  she  sometimes 
wore  glasses  in  her  own  home,  she  apologized  for  doing  so,  explaining 
that  it  was  a  habit  she  often  rose  above,  but  that  at  times  the 
mesmerists  were  too  strong  for  her.  She  believed  that  the  mes- 
merists set  to  work  upon  her  before  the  hour  of  the  weekly  services, 
and  on  Sunday  morning  her  faithful  students  were  sometimes  called 
to  her  house  to  treat  her  against  Kennedy,  Spofford,  and  Arens, 
until  she  took  the  train  for  Boston. 

After  her  formal  removal  from  Lynn  to  Boston  in  1882, 
"she  constantly  learned  from  her  new  associates,  even  to 
the  extent  of  resolutely  breaking  herself  of  certain  un- 
grammatical  habits  of  speech — no  mean  achievement  for 
a  woman  above  sixty."  It  certainly  is  an  astonishing 
fact  that  this  woman  who  had  passed  her  sixtieth  birthday 
and  was  yet  utterly  unknown  outside  of  a  little  circle  in 
and  around  Boston  and  was  generally  regarded  with 
pitying  amusement  or  contempt  as  a  visionary  with  a 
queer  obsession,  afterwards  became  and  now  is  one  of 
the  most  widely  known  women  in  the  world  and  to-day 
is  the  religious  leader  of  a  considerable  body  of  people. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  177 

Mrs.  Eddy  became  "pastor"  of  her  church  in  1881. 
"When  others  preached,"  writes  Mrs.  Josephine  C. 
Woodbury,  who  was  once  one  of  her  closest  associates, 
"she  occasionally  attended  the  church  whereof  she  was 
nominally  pastor,  and  took  some  part  in  the  service.  Once 
she  held  a  baptismal  service  without  water,  though  her 
memory  failed  her  in  repeating  the  formula  prepared  by 
herself;  and  sometimes  there  was  a  communion  service, 
without  water  or  wine.  Most  Sundays,  however,  she 
worshiped  God  in  the  privacy  of  her  own  home.  If  wonder 
was  expressed  at  her  absence,  the  adoring  disciples  re- 
plied, *How  could  she,  the  divinely  inspired,  bear  to  hear 
ordinary  preaching.'  *'i 

The  place  of  meeting  of  the  Christian  Science  Church 
was  removed  from  Hawthorne  Hall  to  Chickering  Hall 
and  finally  to  its  permanent  location  on  Falmouth  Street 
in  the  fashionable  Back  Bay  district.  The  purchase  of 
this  location  was  itself  a  complicated  and  curious  trans- 
action in  which  Mrs.  Eddy  played  a  characteristic  part, 
finally  getting  the  lot  entirely  into  her  own  hands  by 
what  she  herself  called  "a  circuitous,  novel  way"  and 
giving  her  absolute  control  of  the  church  property. 2  On 
this  lot  was  built  the  original  "Mother  Church,"  a  gray 
granite  structure  seating  1100,  which  was  dedicated  on 
January  6,  1895.  Eleven  years  later  in  1906  there  was 
dedicated  the  splendid  marble  church  called  the  "Annex" 
which  seats  5000,  the  whole  property  costing  more  than 
$2,000,000.  The  twenty-six  charter  members  of  1879  had 
grown  by  1894  to  2978  as  reported  at  the  second  annual 

1  The  Arena,  May  1899,  pp.  564,  565. 

2  The  full  story  of  this  affair  is  told  by  Miss  Milmine,  History,  pp. 
399-406. 


178        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

business  meeting  held  in  that  year.  Money  to  build  the 
original  "Mother  Church"  with  its  imposing  "Annex" 
had  flowed  into  the  treasury  in  copious  streams  and  the 
Christian  Science  Church  was  at  the  high  tide  of  pros- 
perity. 

2.  DISSENSIONS  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH 

The  course  of  Church  history  never  did  run  smooth,  and 
Christian  Science  has  had  its  full  share.  Dissensions 
among  the  followers  of  Mrs.  Eddy  began  early.  Her 
peculiar  temperament,  jealous  and  irritable,  dictatorial 
and  intolerant,  left  small  room  for  other  personalities  of 
any  individuality  and  independence  and  no  room  for 
opinions  different  from  hers.  We  have  already  seen 
how  she  became  involved  in  quarrels  and  lawsuits  with 
student  after  student  in  her  early  years  in  Lynn,  and  this 
unhappy  disposition  and  fate  plagued  her  to  the  end. 
Many  of  her  most  prominent  and  efficient  followers  and 
workers  withdrew  from  her  fellowship  and  church,  some 
of  them  going  off  to  start  rival  healing  movements. 
Christian  Science  has  given  birth  to  a  surprising  number  of 
sects  or  "denominations."  "Disgruntled  Christian  Scien- 
tists," says  Miss  Milmine,  "usually  went  off  and  started 
a  church  of  their  own,  and  there  were  by  this  time  (1896) 
almost  as  many  ^reformed'  varieties  of  Christian  Science 
as  there  were  dissenters.  Mrs.  Gestefield  taught  one 
kind  in  Chicago,  Mrs.  Crosse  another  kind  in  Boston, 
Frank  Mason  another  in  Brooklyn,  Captain  Sabin  was 
soon  to  teach  another  in  Washington,  while  nearly  all 
the  students  who  had  quarreled  with  Mrs.  Eddy  or  broken 
away  from  her  were  teaching  or  practicing  some  variety 
of  mind  cure." 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  179 

The  first  serious  dissension  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  church  and 
withdrawal  from  it  occurred  in  1881  when  eight  prominent 
members  signed  the  following  statement: 

We,  the  undersigned,  while  we  acknowledge  and  appreciate  the 
understanding  of  Truth  imparted  to  us  by  our  Teacher,  Mrs.  Mary 
B.  G.  Eddy,  led  by  Divine  Intelligence  to  perceive  with  sorrow  that 
departure  from  the  straight  and  narrow  road  (which  alone  leads  to 
growth  of  Christlike  virtues)  made  manifest  by  frequent  ebullitions 
of  temper,  love  of  money,  and  the  appearance  of  hypocrisy,  cannot 
longer  submit  to  such  Leadership;  therefore,  without  aught  of 
hatred,  revenge  or  petty  spite  in  our  hearts,  from  a  sense  of  duty 
alone,  to  her,  the  Cause,  and  ourselves,  do  most  respectfully  with- 
draw our  names  from  the  Christian  Science  Association  and  Church 
of  Christ  (Scientist). 

S.  DURANT, 

MARGARET  J.  DUNSHEE, 
DORCAS  B.  RAWSON, 
ELIZABETH  G.  STUART. 
JANE  L.  STRAW, 
ANNA  B.  NEWMAN, 
JAMES  C.  HOWARD, 
MIRANDA  M.  RICE. 
21st  October,  1881. 


These  resignations  came  to  Mrs.  Eddy  as  a  complete 
surprise,  and  no  wonder  she  was  filled  with  indignation, 
for  it  must  have  shocked  *'the  Discoverer  and  Founder** 
of  this  new  faith  to  find  herself  charged  with  heresy,  bad 
temper,  the  love  of  money,  and  hypocrisy.  But  she 
quickly  recovered  her  poise  and,  instead  of  accepting  the 
eight  resignations,  notified  the  resigning  members  that 
they  were  liable  to  expulsion  and  summoned  them  to  ap- 
pear at  a  church  meeting.  They  refused  to  appear,  but  at 
the  meeting  two  more  members,  including  the  secretary  of 
the  church,  resigned,  stating  that  they  *'could  no  longer 
entertain  the  subject  of  Mesmerism  which  had  lately 
been  made  uppermost  in  the  meetings  and  in  Mrs.  Eddy's 


180        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

talks."  Mrs.  Eddy  was  left  with  scarcely  a  dozen  students 
in  Lynn,  and  this  first  schism  was  a  blow  to  her  church 
in  that  city  from  which  it  has  not  recovered  to  this  day. 
The  secession  of  1881  was  followed  by  a  more  serious 
division  in  1888.  Trouble  had  been  brewing  for  several 
years  over  a  variety  of  causes.  Some  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
students  were  disillusionized,  including  Mrs.  Sarah  Crosse, 
editor  of  the  Journal.  The  chief  trouble,  however, 
arose  over  a  notorious  case  in  obstetrics.  One  of  her 
students,  Mrs.  Abbey  H.  Corner,  had  attended  her  own 
daughter  in  childbirth,  and  both  mother  and  child  had 
died.  The  case  aroused  wide  indignation,  action  was 
brought  against  Mrs.  Corner,  and  then  Mrs.  Eddy  com- 
pletely repudiated  her  own  student,  though  the  Christian 
Scientists'  Association  stood  by  Mrs.  Corner  and  paid 
her  attorney  out  of  its  treasury.  A  stormy  meeting  of 
the  association  followed  and  thirty-two  members  resigned 
from  it.  However,  they  found  themselves  confronted 
and  blocked  by  one  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  by-laws,  which  read: 

Resolved,  That  everyone  who  wishes  to  withdraw  without  reason 
shall  be  considered  to  have  broken  his  oath. 

Resolved,  That  breaking  the  Christian  Scientists'  oath  is  im- 
morality. 

Members  had  already  been  expelled  for  this  "immoral- 
ity." The  dissenting  faction  got  hold  of  the  books  of 
the  association  and  refused  to  surrender  them  until  Mrs. 
Eddy  signed  the  letters  of  dismissal  as  president  of  the 
association.  The  withdrawal  of  these  thirty-two  from 
less  than  two  hundred  members  again  seriously  weakened 
Mrs.  Eddy's  church.  But  she  always  quickly  rallied 
after  these  losses  and  smoothed  over  the  secession    of 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  181 

1888  by  writing  in  the  Journal  of  September  in  that  year: 
"The  late  much  ado  about  nothing  arose  solely  from  mental 
malicious  practice,  and  the  audible  falsehood  designed  to 
stir  up  strife  between  brethren,  for  the  purpose  of  placing 
Christian  Science  in  the  hands  of  aspirants  for  place  and 
power."  But  she  was  always  expert  at  keeping  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  law  and  it  was  at  this  juncture  that  she 
secured  the  service  of  Dr.  E.  J.  Foster  as  "assistant  in 
obstetrics,"  and  announced  in  the  Journal:  "Doctor 
Foster  will  teach  the  anatomy  and  surgery  of  obstetrics, 
and  I,  its  metaphysics.  The  combination  of  his  knowledge 
of  Christian  Science  with  his  anatomical  skill,  renders 
him  a  desirable  teacher  in  this  department  of  my  college. 
In  twenty  years'  practice  he  has  not  had  a  single  case  of 
mortality  at  childbirth." 

Whenever  anyone,  especially  a  woman,  became  promi- 
nent in  the  Christian  Science  Church  and  appeared  to 
be  looming  up  as  a  rival  of  its  "Discoverer  and  Founder," 
this  exalted  personage  soon  found  a  way  of  removing  her. 
One  of  her  students  who  was  overtaken  by  this  unhappy 
fate  was  Mrs.  Josephine  Curtis  Woodbury,  who  had  been 
associated  with  Mrs.  Eddy  as  one  of  her  foremost  teachers 
and  healers  since  1879.  She  it  was  who  gave  birth  to  a 
son  in  1890,  as  the  result,  as  her  followers  believed,  of  an 
"immaculate  conception,"  the  possibility  of  which  had 
been  taught  by  Mrs.  Eddy  herself.  The  child  was  named 
"The  prince  of  peace"  and  was  often  called  "Little 
Immanuel."  By  the  time  of  its  birth,  however,  strained 
relations  had  arisen  between  the  two  women,  and  Mrs. 
Eddy  promptly  branded  it  "an  imp  of  Satan."  Mrs. 
Woodbury  had  imagination  and  was  a  woman  of  much 
greater  culture  than  Mrs.  Eddy  and  was  able  to  give  to 


182        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Christian  Science  "an  emotional  coloring  which  was  very 
distasteful  to  Mrs.  Eddy  herself."  She  had  preached  and 
lectured  east  and  west  and  had  conducted  a  school  of 
her  own  in  Boston,  and  all  this  was  viewed  with  jealousy 
by  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  she  soon  found  a  way  of  excluding 
and  then  excommunicating  her  dangerous  rival.  Mrs. 
Woodbury  now  renounced  Christian  Science  and  all  its 
works  and  especially  its  "Discoverer  and  Founder"  in 
an  article  in  the  Arena  of  May,  1899,  in  which  she  says, 
"the  writer  has  emerged  from  the  toils  after  many  years 
of  close  association  with  the  head  of  the  new  church." 
Mrs.  Eddy  promptly  retaliated  the  next  month  in  her 
annual  message  to  the  Mother  Church  in  which  she  used 
language  which  disclosed  what  fountains  of  rage  and 
bitterness  were  hidden  in  the  heart  of  her  whom  Christian 
Scientists  are  fond  of  characterizing  as  "a  sweet-spirited 
and  gentle  woman."  Mrs.  Woodbury's  husband  died 
almost  immediately  after  the  appearance  of  her  article 
in  the  Arena,  and  this  fact  turns  some  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
words  into  daggers.  "In  language,"  says  Mr.  Peabody, 
"seldom  or  never  before  equaled  for  cruelty  and  brutality, 
Mrs.  Eddy  assailed  Mrs.  Woodbury.  Pretending,  herself, 
to  be  *the  woman  arrayed  with  the  sun,'  spoken  of  in  the 
book  of  Revelation,  Mrs.  Eddy  denounced  Mrs.  Woodbury 
as  the  Babylonish  woman  there  referred  to."  We  give 
only  a  few  sentences  from  this  address  which  was  read 
from  the  pulpit  of  the  Mother  Church  in  June,  1899: 

The  doom  of  the  Babylonish  woman  referred  to  in  Revelation  is 
being  fulfilled.  This  woman,  drunken  with  the  blood  of  the  saints 
and  with  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  of  Jesus,  drunk  of  the  wine  of  her 
fornication,  would  enter  even  the  church  and  retaining  the  heart  of 
the  harlot  and  the  purpose  of  the  destroying  angel.  .  .  poison  such 
as  drink  of  the  living  water.    .    .    Double  unto  double,  according  to 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  183 

her  work:  in  the  cup  which  she  hath  filled,  fill  to  her  double.  For 
she  saith  in  her  heart  I  am  no  widow.  .  .  Therefore  shall  her  plague 
come  in  one  day,  death,  mourning  and  famine:  for  strong  is  the  Lord 
who  judgeth  her.  That  which  the  revelator  saw  in  spiritual  vision 
will  be  accomplished.  The  Babylonish  woman  is  fallen;  and  who 
shall  mourn  over  the  widowhood  of  lust,  of  her  that  hath  become 
the  habitation  of  devils,  and  the  hold  of  every  foul  spirit  and  the 
cage  of  every  unclean  bird.^ 

Christian  Scientists  would  be  glad  to  forget  and  es- 
pecially to  have  the  public  forget  this  odious  language, 
but  it  was  published  in  the  Christian  Science  Sentinel 
where  it  can  be  read  to  this  day. 

As  Christian  Science  churches  were  founded  in  other 
cities  than  Boston  they  began  to  acquire  influence  and  their 
pastors  became  leaders  and  attained  prominence.  Mrs. 
Augusta  E.  Stetson  was  pastor  of  a  specially  strong  church 
in  New  York,  Mrs.  Ewing  was  pastor  of  such  a  church 
in  Chicago,  Mrs.  Leonard  in  Brooklyn,  Mrs.  WilHams  in 
Buffalo,  Mrs.  Norcross  in  Denver,  and  Mrs.  Steward  in 
Toronto.  Mrs.  Eddy  began  to  scent  danger  of  rivalry 
and  of  the  possible  beginning  of  differing  creeds  and  cults 
and  budding  denominations  in  these  churches,  and  she 
took  prompt  and  effective  measures  to  cut  short  any 
such  tendencies.  In  the  Journal  of  April,  1895,  she  an- 
nounced without  warning  that  there  were  to  be  no  more 
pastors  or  preachers^  but  instead  a  First  and  a  Second 
Reader  and  that  the  Sunday  sermon  was  to  consist  only 
of  extracts  from  the  Bible  and  from  *'Science  and  Health.'* 
Her  first  arrangement  was  that  the  First  Reader  would 
read  from  the  Bible  and  then  the  Second  Reader  would 
follow  with  the  selection  from  her  own  book,  but  she 
soon  reversed  this  order,  and  now  it  is  the  Second  Reader 

1  Masquerade,  pp.  10-14. 


184        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

that  reads  from  the  Bible  and  the  First  Reader  that  reads 
from  ^'Science  and  Health."  This  order  emptied  at  one 
fell  swoop  every  Christan  Science  pulpit  of  its  pastor. 
*'In  1895  I  ordained  the  Bible  and  ^Science  and  Health' 
with  *Key  to  the  Scriptures,'  as  the  Pastor,  on  this 
planet,  of  all  the  churches  of  the  Christian  Science  de- 
nomination." "Did  anyone  expect  such  a  revelation, 
such  a  new  departure  would  be  given?"  humbly  wrote 
one  of  the  deposed  pastors  in  the  August  Journal.  **No, 
not  in  the  way  it  came.  .  .  Such  disclosures  are  too 
high  for  us  to  perceive.  To  One  alone  did  the  message 
come."  Mrs.  Eddy  thus  made  it  certain  that  there  would 
be  no  successor  to  herself  as  *Tastor"  of  The  Mother 
Church  and  no  more  **pastors"  anywhere  in  the  Christian 
Science  churches,  for  she  had  made  the  Bible  and  her 
own  book  "the  Pastor  on  this  planet"  for  all  time. 

The  order  to  retire  from  the  pulpit  as  pastor  fell  with 
special  hardship  on  Mrs.  Stetson  in  New  York.  She 
also,  like  Mrs.  Woodbury,  was  a  woman  of  finer  fiber  and 
broader  culture  than  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  she  had  built  up  a 
flourishing  and  influential  church  in  the  metropolis.  She 
had,  however,  become  altogether  too  conspicuous  and  was 
filling  too  large  a  place  in  the  public  eye.  It  was  also 
being  rumored  that  she  was  in  training  to  succeed  Mrs. 
Eddy  as  the  head  and  leader  of  Christian  Science,  and 
this  in  itself  was  a  mortal  sin.  She  bowed  to  the  decree 
to  retire  from  the  pulpit  of  her  own  church  and  wrote  a 
letter  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  addressed  to  "My  precious  Leader," 
in  which  she  protested  her  loyalty  in  nauseating  terms, 
which  yet  made  the  impression  that  she  was  protesting  al- 
together too  much.  She  had  announced  the  plan  of  build- 
ing  a   new  and  magnificent  church  on  the  fashionable 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  185 

Riverside  Drive  in  New  York  which  was  to  "rival  in 
beauty  of  architecture  any  other  rehgious  structure  in 
America."  Such  a  project  looked  too  much  like  a  rival 
to  the  two  million  dollar  Mother  Church  in  Boston,  and 
Mrs.  Eddy  promptly  put  her  foot  on  it.  It  was  announced 
in  her  church  organ  that  Mrs.  Eddy  was  not  pleased  "with 
what  purport  to  be  plans  of  First  Church  of  Christ  Scientist 
of  New  York  City,  for  she  learned  of  this  proposed  rival  to 
The  Mother  Church  for  the  first  time,  in  the  daily  press." 
The  editorial  further  stated  that  "three  leading  facts 
remain  immortal  in  the  history  of  Christian  Science," 
namely: 

1.  This  Science  is  already  established,  and  it  has  the  support  of 
all  true  Christian  Scientists  throughout  the  world. 

2.  Any  competition  or  any  rivalry  in  Christian  Science  is  abnormal, 
and  will  expose  and  explode  itself. 

3.  Any  attempt  at  rivalry  or  superiority  in  Christian  Science  is 
unchristian;  therefore  it  is  unscientific.  The  great  Teacher  said: 
"As  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye." 

But  still  Mrs.  Stetson  loomed  large  in  New  York,  and 
Mrs.  Eddy  could  endure  no  rival  priestess  and  altar 
anywhere.  At  length  the  New  York  leader  was  summoned 
to  appear  before  the  directors  of  The  Mother  Church  in 
Boston  where  she  was  subjected  to  a  kind  of  court-martial 
trial.  She  was  found  guilty  of  the  following  charges  as 
summarized  by  Miss  Milmine: 

"Erroneous  teaching  of  Christian  Science;  the  exercise  of  undue 
influence  over  her  students,  which  tended  to  hinder  their  moral  and 
spiritual  growth;  turning  the  attention  of  her  students  to  herself 
away  from  divine  principle;  teaching  and  practicing  contrary  to 
'Science  and  Health;*  and  finally,  that  'Mrs.  Stetson  attempts  to 
control  and  injure  persons  by  mental  means,  this  being  utterly 
contrary  to  the  teachings  of  Christian  Science.' "  She  was  officially 
deprived  of  her  rank  as  a  healer  and  as  a  teacher  and  forbidden  to 


186        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

teach  or  practice  Christian  Science  and  "placed  on  a  three  years' 
probation,  at  the  conclusion  of  which,  if  her  conduct  has  been  ex- 
emplary and  if  she  has  met  Mrs.  Eddy's  requirements  as  to  loyalty, 
she  may,  if  Mrs.  Eddy  sees  fit,  again  be  permitted  to  teach  and 
practice." 

The  dictator's  despotic  hand  is  plainly  visible  in  these 
terms.  Mrs.  Eddy's  personal  will  determined  everything. 
The  same  autocratic  condemnation  also  fell  upon  sixteen 
practitioners  and  eight  of  the  nine  trustees  of  the  First 
Church  of  New  York  who  were  supporters  of  Mrs.  Stetson. 
The  outcome  of  this  celebrated  case  was  that  Mrs.  Stetson 
was  expelled  from  The  Mother  Church  in  Boston,  but 
she  still  claims  to  be  loyal  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  teachings 
and  is  conducting  the  "New  York  City  Christian  Science 
Institute."! 

The  lawsuits  that  swarmed  around  Mrs.  Eddy  in  her 
life  have  pursued  and  plagued  her  church  since  her  death. 
When  she  transferred  her  large  property  to  trustees  she 
sowed  the  seed  of  a  new  crop  of  lawsuits.  Both  the 
directors  and  the  trustees  of  The  Mother  Church  have 
had  internal  dissensions.  In  1919  the  directors  removed 
one  of  their  number,  who  then  appealed  to  the  court 
for  reinstatement  and  the  decision  was  in  his  favor.  A 
clash  arose  between  the  two  boards.  The  directors 
claimed  authority  over  the  trustees,  removed  one  of  their 
number  on  the  ground  that  he  had  "allowed  a  sense  of 
self-interest  to  interfere  with  the  interests  of  Christian 

1  A  full  history  of  this  case  is  given  in  Vital  Issues  in  Christian 
Science,  a  large  volume  issued  by  Mrs.  Stetson  in  1914.  Charges  of 
"animal  magnetism"  and  other  malicious  practices  fly  back  and 
forth  between  Boston  and  New  York,  and  the  volume  throws 
interesting  light  into  the  medieval  beliefs  and  autocratic  star  chamber 
proceedings  and  warring  factions  and  inside  troubles  of  Christian 
Science. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  187 

Science,"  and  also  endeavored  to  interfere  with  the  control 
of  the  trustees  over  the  publishing  house  of  the  church. 
In  March,  1919,  the  trustees  brought  suit  to  have  the 
directors  restrained  from  interfering  with  their  conduct 
of  the  Pubhshing  Society's  affairs.  The  trustees  con- 
tended that  the  directors'  power  was  Hmited  and  that 
they  had  no  right  to  remove  any  member  of  the  Board 
of  Trustees.  The  decision  of  the  court  was  rendered 
in  December,  1919,  and  it  estabhshed  the  contention 
of  the  trustees  that  they  are  in  no  way  subordinate  to 
the  directors  and  that  the  directors  have  no  legal  power 
to  control  or  remove  members  of  the  Board  of  Trustees. 
The  case  was  then  referred  by  the  court  to  a  master,  and 
on  March  6,  1920,  he  rendered  his  decision  confirming 
the  decision  of  the  court. 

This  litigation  over  millions  of  dollars  of  trust  funds 
and  involving  the  supreme  power  of  control  in  the  church, 
accompanied  with  much  bitter  personal  animosity,  has 
rocked  the  Christian  Science  organization  from  top  to 
bottom.  It  caused  dissension  and  disruption  in  the 
Seventh  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  in  New  York.  At 
a  meeting  of  this  church  on  February  22,  1920,  the  follow- 
ing resolutions  were  adopted  * 

This  is  a  very  crucial  moment  in  the  growth  of  our  beloved  cause 
and  also  in  that  of  the  Seventh  Church.  Disloyalty  to  the  Manual 
of  the  Mother  Church  and  to  the  Directors  of  The  Mother  Church 
seems  rampant  throughout  the  field.  This  disloyalty  has  tried  to 
gain  a  footing  in  the  Seventh  Church.  Loyalty  to  a  disloyal  student 
of  Christian  Science  is  considered  disloyalty  in  itself. 

The  resolutions  then  demanded  that  no  persons  in  the 
church  be  permitted  to  hold  office  who  refused  to  declare 
publicly  in  favor  of  the  directors  and  against  the  trustees 


188        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

in  the  Boston  lawsuit.  The  First  Reader  of  the  church 
refused  to  sign  this  declaration  and  was  then  removed 
from  his  office,  and  he  and  about  one  third  of  the  con- 
gregation, who  also  refused  to  sign  the  resolutions,  went 
off  and  formed  another  church. 

The  case  in  Boston  still  goes  to  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  State,  further  lawsuits  are  threatened  in  New  York, 
and  the  end  is  not  yet. 

3.  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH 

The  first  organization  of  the  ''Church  of  Christ,  Scien- 
tist," which  was  effected  in  1879,  continued  until  1890, 
when  Mrs.  Eddy  abolished  it  by  one  fell  decree.  The 
members  continued  to  meet  and  hold  services  as  before, 
but  there  were  no  more  business  meetings.  The  reason 
given  in  the  Journal  for  this  revolutionary  and  arbitrary 
action  was  that  *'the  bonds  of  the  church  were  thrown  away 
so  that  its  members  might  assemble  themselves  together 
to  'provoke  one  another  to  good  works'  in  the  bond  only 
of  love."  As  usual,  however,  there  was  method  in  Mrs. 
Eddy's  apparent  madness,  and  it  was  seen  in  due  time 
that  she  was  playing  a  deep  game  by  which  she  was  plan- 
ning to  get  the  church  in  its  whole  organization  and 
property  completely  in  her  own  hands  so  that  there 
would  be  no  more  rebellions  and  rivals  in  it.  It  was  dur- 
ing this  interval  of  disorganization  that  she  obtained 
possession,  in  her  "circuitous,  novel  way,"  of  the  lot  on 
Falmouth  Street  and  then  conveyed  it  to  her  own  self- 
chosen  directors  in  a  deed  which  provides  that  "Whenever 
said  directors  shall  determine  that  it  is  inexpedient  to 
maintain  preaching,  reading,  or  speaking  in  said  church 
in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  this  deed,  they  are  author- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  189 

ized  to  reconvey  forthwith  said  lot  of  land  with  the  building 
thereon,  to  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy,  her  heirs  and  assigns 
forever,  by  a  proper  deed  of  conveyance."  She  thus 
secured  an  unbreakable  grip  on  this  property,  which  with 
its  costly  building  is  worth  more  than  $2,000,000  and  to 
which  she  contributed  only  $5000. 

This  notable  deed  bears  the  date  of  September  1,  1892. 
The  ground  was  now  cleared  for  a  new  organization 
of  her  church,  and  on  September  23,  1892,  three  weeks 
and  one  day  after  the  date  of  the  deed,  the  church  was 
reorganized.  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  appointed  the  officers 
and  also  twelve  * 'charter  members,"  who  had  the  power 
of  admitting  new  members  by  ballot,  a  device  by  which 
she  was  able  to  keep  out  of  the  new  church  such  members 
of  the  old  organization  as  did  not  suit  her.  The  new 
organization  now  became  The  Mother  Church  and  head 
of  all  other  Christian  Science  churches  throughout  the 
world,  which  are  branches  of  it,  many  of  the  members 
of  the  branch  churches  also  being  members  of  The  Mother 
Church  in  Boston.  The  twelve  "charter  members"  with 
certain  others  became  * 'First  Members,"  and  these  by  a 
by-law  adopted  March  17,  1903,  became  * 'Executive 
Members,"  and  these  disappeared  by  the  repeal  of  this 
by-law  on  July  8,  1908.1 

The  Mother  Church  is  governed  by  the  * 'Manual  of 
The  Mother  Church,  By  Mary  Baker  Eddy,"  which 
contains  "the  Church  Tenets,  Rules,  and  By-Laws,  as 
prepared  by  Mrs.  Eddy,"  and  is  published  by  the  Chris- 
tian Science  Publishing  Society  and  is  now  in  its  eighty- 
ninth  edition.  This  little  book  of  139  pages  is  almost 
as   important   in   the   history   and   doings   of  Christian 

^Manual,  p.  18. 


190        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Science  as  **Science  and  Health"  itself.  It  is  really  the 
hub  of  the  whole  organization  out  of  which  run  spokes 
to  every  point  on  the  circumference.  It  is  a  master- 
piece of  despotic  origination  and  control  out  of  which 
every  trace  of  democracy  and  initiative  and  individuality 
has  been  carefully  erased.  In  nothing  has  Mrs.  Eddy 
shown  her  dominating  and  domineering  spirit  and  her 
deep-rooted  suspicion  and  jealousy  of  rivalry  and  re- 
bellion and  disloyalty  and  her  cunning  in  guarding  every 
point  and  keeping  everything  in  her  own  hands  and  in 
the  hands  of  *'her  heirs  and  assigns  forever"  as  in  this 
little  book.  Her  hand  has  written  or  dictated  every  line 
of  it  and  every  line  bears  the  impress  of  her  authorship 
and  design.  It  was  a  growth,  and  she  was  able  to  meet 
every  emergency  with  a  new  "rule"  or  "by-law"  that 
put  some  enemy  out  of  business  or  secured  some  personal 
end.  No  kaiser  or  Russian  czar  ever  wielded  such  ar- 
bitrary power  as  she  clothed  herself  with  as  with  a  purple 
robe  in  this  "Manual"  and  ruthlessly  exercised.  Bismarck 
would  have  envied  the  genius  that  conceived  it.  Machia- 
velli  would  have  marveled  at  it  as  a  masterpiece.  The 
pope  himself  is  a  pale  specter  as  compared  with  Mrs. 
Eddy  and  has  no  such  ecclesiastical  authority  as  is  em- 
bodied in  this  little  book.  Yet  Christian  Scientists  in 
democratic  America  meekly  submit  to  it  and  have  "no 
more  voice  in  the  management  of  the  church  than  has 
the  audience  in  the  management  of  a  theater." l 

1  Mark  Twain  devotes  a  considerable  part  of  his  book  Christian 
Science  to  a  sarcastic  exposition  and  ridicule  of  this  Manual.  "In 
1895,  she  wrote  a  little  primer,  a  little  body  of  autocratic  laws, 
called  the  Manual  of  The  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  and  put 
those  laws  in  force,  in  permanence.  Her  government  is  all  there; 
all  in  that  deceptively  innocent-looking  little  book,  that  cunning 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  191 

The  preface  to  the  book  is  a  quotation  from  a  letter  of 
Mrs.  Eddy's  in  "Miscellaneous  Writings"  and  is  as 
follows : 

The  Rules  and  By-Laws  in  the  Manual  of  The  First  Church  of 
Christ,  Scientist,  Boston,  originated  not  in  solemn  conclave  as  in 
ancient  sanhedrin.  They  were  not  arbitrary  opinions  nor  dictatorial 
demands,  such  as  one  person  might  impose  on  another.  They  were 
impelled  by  a  power  not  one's  own,  were  written  at  different  dates, 
and  as  the  occasion  required.  They  sprang  from  necessity,  the 
logic  of  events — from  the  immediate  demand  for  them  as  a  help  that 
must  be  supplied  to  maintain  the  dignity  and  defense  of  our  Cause; 
hence  their  simple,  scientific  basis,  and  detail  so  requisite  to  demon- 
strate genuine  Christian  Science,  and  which  will  do  for  the  race 
what  absolute  doctrines  destined  for  future  generations  might  not 
accomplish. 

This  preface  bears  all  the  marks  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  fine 
hand — the  mock  modesty  (''not  arbitrary  opinions  nor 
dictatorial  demands"),  the  claim  of  divine  inspiration 
("impelled  by  a  power  not  one's  own"),  and  the  bland 
assumption  of  legislating  "for  the  race."  But  in  spite 
of  this  denial  these  rules  are  emphatically  "arbitrary 
opinions"  and  "dictatorial  demands,"  and  there  was 
never  a  truer  word  said  than  the  admission  that  these 
"Rules  and  By-Laws"  "were  written  at  different  times, 
and  as  the  occasion  required";  and  "the  occasion  required" 
very  often  and  in  connection  with  the  most  trivial 
point  or  incident,  especially  when  the  occasion  touched 
Mrs.  Eddy  herself  in  the  slightest  way.  When  she  found 
that  her  rival  in  New  York,  Mrs.  Stetson,  was  still  teach- 
ing in  her  church,  it  was  quickly  written  in  ArticleXXIII 
that   "Teachers   and   practitioners   of   Christian  Science 

little  devilish  book,  that  slumbering  little  brown  volcano,  with  hell 
in  its  bowels.  In  that  book  she  planned  out  her  system,  and  classi- 
fied and  defined  its  purposes."     Pp.  343-344. 


192        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

shall  not  have  their  offices  or  rooms  in  the  branch  churches, 
in  the  reading  rooms,  nor  in  rooms  connected  therewith,'* 
and  Mrs.  Stetson  at  once  retired  with  her  classes  to  her 
own  home.  When  she  found  that  she  was  being  annoyed 
by  people  loitering  around  her  house  and  along  the  road 
in  the  hope  of  seeing  her  she  stopped  the  impertinence 
by  what  is  rather  strangely  called  "The  Golden  Rule" 
and  which  declares:  *'A  member  of  The  Mother  Church 
shall  not  haunt  Mrs.  Eddy's  drive  when  she  goes  out, 
continually  stroll  by  her  house,  or  make  a  summer  resort 
near  her  for  such  purpose."  When  Mark  Twain  ridiculed 
her  assumption  of  the  title  * 'Mother,"  she  changed  Article 
XXII  in  an  astounding  manner.  This  article  originally 
read: 

The  Title  Mother.  In  the  year  1895  loyal  Christian  Scientists 
had  given  to  the  author  of  their  textbook,  the  Founder  of  Christian 
Science,  the  individual,  endearing  term  of  Mother.  Therefore,  if  a 
student  of  Christian  Science  shall  apply  this  title,  either  to  herself 
or  to  others,  except  as  the  term  for  kinship  according  to  the  flesh,  it 
shall  be  regarded  by  the  Church  as  an  indication  of  disrespect  for 
their  Pastor-Emeritus,  and  unfitness  to  be  a  member  of  The  Mother 
Church. 

After  Mark  Twain's  ridicule  of  this  particular  bit  of 
conceit  and  silliness,  the  article  was  changed  to  read  as 
it  now  stands: 

The  Title  of  Mother  Changed.  In  the  year  eighteen  hundred  and 
ninety-five,  loyal  Christian  Scientists  had  given  to  the  author  of 
their  textbook,  the  Founder  of  Christian  Science,  the  individual, 
endearing  term  of  Mother.  At  first  Mrs.  Eddy  objected  to  being 
called  thus,  but  afterward  consented  on  the  ground  that  this  appel- 
lative in  the  Church  meant  nothing  more  than  a  tender  term  such  as 
sister  or  brother.  In  the  year  nineteen  hundred  and  three  and  after, 
owing  to  the  public  misunderstanding  of  this  name,  it  is  the  duty  of 
Christian  Scientists  to  drop  this  word  "mother"  and  to  substitute 
"Leader,"  already  used  in  our  periodicals. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  193 

The  contradictory  statements  in  these  two  forms  of 
this  article  need  no  comment.  The  name  *'Leader," 
however,  having  been  appropriated  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  in- 
stantly became  sacred  and  restricted  to  her,  and  any 
other  member  "shall  not  be  called  Leader  by  members 
of  this  Church." 

Nothing  is  too  trivial  to  escape  Mrs.  Eddy's  eye  and  hand 
and  every  slightest  detail  is  fixed  in  this  * 'Manual."  For 
example.  Article  XXIII  designates  the  title  of  The  Mother 
Church  as  *'The  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,"  and 
then  adds:  *'but  the  article  *The*  must  not  be  used  before 
titles  of  branch  churches,  nor  written  on  applications 
for  membership  in  naming  such  churches."  And  thus 
*'that  imperial  word  THE,"  says  Mark  Twain,  *'lifts 
The  Mother  Church  away  up  in  the  sky"  along  with 
*'the  Milky  Way,  the  Bible,  the  Earth,  the  Equator,  the 
Devil.  .  .  and  by  clamor  of  edict  and  By-Law  Mrs. 
Eddy  gives  personal  notice  to  all  branch  Scientist  Churches 
on  this  planet  to  leave  that  THE  alone."  As  another 
instance  of  meticulous  supervision  of  trivial  details,  **The 
Mother  Church  shall  not.  .  .  enter  into  a  business 
transaction  with  a  Christian  Scientist  in  the  employ  of 
Rev.  Mary  Baker  Eddy,  without  first  consulting  her  on 
said  subject  and  adhering  strictly  to  her  advice  thereon." 

Extraordinary  care  is  taken  to  guard  the  sovereignty 
and  dignity  and  feelings  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  her  simple 
word  is  enough  to  convict  a  member  of  an  offense.  Article 
XI,  on  "Complaints,"  has  13  sections,  and  they  are 
mostly  concerned  with  Mrs.  Eddy.  To  quote  from  this 
Article  as  follows: 

Any  member  who  shall  unjustly  aggrieve  or  vilify  the  Pastor 
Emeritus  or  another  member,  or  who  does  not  live  in  Christian 


194        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

fellowship  with  this  Church,  shall  either  withdraw  from  the  Church 
or  be  excommunicated.  .  .  If  a  member  of  this  church  shall, 
mentally  or  otherwise,  persist  in  working  against  the  interests  of 
another  member,  or  the  interests  of  our  Pastor  Emeritus  and  the 
accomplishment  of  what  she  understands  is  advantageous  to  this 
Church  and  to  the  Cause  of  Christian  Science,  or  shall  influence 
others  thus  to  act,  upon  her  complaint  or  the  complaint  of  a  member 
for  her  or  for  himself,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Board  of  Directors 
immediately  to  call  a  meeting,  and  drop  forever  the  name  of  the 
member  guilty  of  this  offense  from  the  roll  of  Church  membership. 
.  .  If  a  member  of  this  Church  were  to  treat  the  author  of  our 
textbook  disrespectfully  and  cruelly,  upon  her  complaint  that 
member  should  be  excommunicated.  If  a  member,  without  her 
having  requested  the  information,  shall  trouble  her  on  subjects 
unnecessarily  and  without  her  consent,  it  shall  be  considered  an 
offense.  .  .  If  the  author  of  "Science  and  Health"  shall  bear 
witness  to  the  offense  of  malpractice,  it  shall  be  considered  a  sufficient 
evidence  thereof.  .  .  If  a  member  of  The  Mother  Church  publishes, 
or  causes  to  be  published,  an  article  that  is  false  or  unjust,  hence 
injurious,  to  Christian  Science  or  to  its  Leader,  and  if,  upon  com- 
plaint by  another  member,  the  Board  of  Directors  finds  that  the 
offense  has  been  committed,  the  offender  shall  be  suspended  for  not 
less  than  three  years  from  his  or  her  office  in  this  Church  and  from 
Church  membership.  .  .  If  a  member  of  this  Church,  either  by 
word  or  work,  represents  falsely  to  or  of  the  Leader  and  Pastor 
Emeritus,  said  member  shall  be  immediately  disciplined,  and  a 
second  similar  offense  shall  remove  his  or  her  name  from  member- 
ship of  The  Mother  Church.  .  .  A  member  of  The  Mother  Church 
and  a  branch  church  of  Christ,  Scientists,  shall  not  report  nor  send 
notices  to  The  Mother  Church,  or  to  the  Pastor  Emeritus,  of  errors 
of  the  members  of  their  local  church;  but  they  shall  strive  to  over- 
come these  errors.  1 

It  will  be  seen  from  these  personal  rules  relating  to 
Mrs.  Eddy,  and  these  instances  might  be  multiplied, 
how  dangerous  it  was  in  her  lifetime  to  be  a  member  of 
the  Christian  Science  Church.     A  single  word  from  her 

1  It  is  of  this  "Pastor  Emeritus,"  whose  "personality"  is  so 
sedulously  guarded  and  extravagantly  exalted  all  through  this 
Manual,  that  an  ofl5cial  Christian  Science  publication  says:  "No 
human  being  in  modern  times  was  farther  removed  from  a  desire  to 
perpetuate  a  sense  of  personality  than  Mary  Baker  Eddy,  the  Dis- 
coverer and  Founder  of  Christian  Science."  The  Christian  Science 
Quarterly,  February,  1920. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  195 

could  send  any  member  into  outer  darkness.  And  her 
despotic  power  was  rendered  infinitely  more  dangerous 
by  reason  of  the  fact  that  she  claimed  she  could  read  the 
minds  of  people  and  infallibly  discern  their  very  thoughts 
and  motives.  "I  possess,"  she  declared,  *'a  spiritual 
sense  of  what  the  malicious  mental  practitioner  is  mentally 
arguing  which  cannot  be  deceived;  I  discern  in  the  human 
mind  thoughts,  motives,  and  purposes;  and  neither 
mental  arguments  nor  psychic  power  can  affect  this 
spiritual  insight."^  What  priestly  inquisitor  or  pope  ever 
had  such  power  as  this?  It  was  by  the  swift  stroke  of 
this  sharp  sword  that  the  heads  of  Kennedy  and  Spofford 
and  Mrs.  Woodbury  and  Mrs.  Stetson  and  many  other 
members  and  leaders  metaphorically  fell  into  her  basket. 

With  this  fateful  Manual  in  hand,  let  us  look  into  the 
government  and  administration  of  the  Christian  Science 
Church.  Article  I,  Section  1,  says:  "The  Church  officers 
shall  consist  of  the  Pastor  Emeritus,  a  Board  of  Directors, 
a  President,  a  Clerk,  a  Treasurer,  and  two  Readers." 
How  are  all  these  officers  elected.?  "The  Christian  Science 
Board  of  Directors  shall  consist  of  five  members.  They 
shall  fill  a  vacancy  occurring  on  that  Board  after  the 
candidate  is  approved  by  the  Pastor  Emeritus.  A  ma- 
jority vote  or  the  request  of  Mrs.  Eddy  shall  dismiss 
a  member.  Members  shall  neither  report  the  discussion 
of  this  Board,  nor  those  with  Mrs.  Eddy."  Did  Bismarck 
or  any  pope  or  secret  conclave  ever  dream  of  anything 
like  that.f^  She  makes  the  board,  fills  vacancies,  and  by 
a  mere  request  can  dismiss  any  member  of  it!  This 
Board  of  Directors  is  the  highest  governing  body  of  the 
church,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  holds  it  right  in  her  hand.     It 

1  Christian  Science  History,  by  Mary  B.  G.  Eddy,  p.  16. 


196        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

dare  not  do  one  thing  displeasing  to  her,  for  she  can  dismiss 
the  whole  body  with  a  single  stroke  of  her  pen  and  start 
all  over  again  with  a  new  board  of  her  own  appointment. 
Now  that  she  is  gone,  we  suppose  this  board  fills  its 
vacancies  without  being  subject  to  any  veto  power, 
but  as  long  as  she  had  a  breath  in  her  body  it  had  no 
independent  will  and  power  whatever. 

Now  let  us  see  what  this  Board  of  Directors  can  do, 
always  subject  to  the  approval  and  control  of  Mrs.  Eddy. 
The  Church,  as  we  have  seen  in  Article  I,  Section  1,  has 
officers  consisting  of  a  President,  Clerk,  Treasurer,  and 
two  Readers.  How  are  they  elected?  "The  President 
shall  be  elected,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  Pastor 
Emeritus,  by  the  Board  of  Directors."  The  clerk  and 
the  treasurer  are  elected  *'at  the  annual  meeting  held 
for  this  purpose,  by  a  unanimous  vote  of  the  Christian 
Science  Board  of  Directors  and  the  consent  of  the  Pastor 
Emeritus  in  her  own  handwriting."  Mrs.  Eddy  always 
had  a  special  care  for  financial  matters  and  therefore 
the  election  of  the  treasurer  must  not  only  have  her 
consent,  but  this  consent  must  be  given  in  writing  and 
"in  her  own  handwriting"  at  that.  It  will  be  recalled 
that  Article  XXI  forbids  The  Mother  Church  to  "enter 
into  any  business  transaction  with  a  Christian  Scientist 
in  the  employ  of  Rev.  Mary  Baker  Eddy  without  first 
consulting  her  on  said  subject  and  adhering  strictly  to 
her  advice."  She  was  a  masterly  financier  and  took  no 
chances  with  any  treasurer  or  business  transaction. 

The  Board  of  Directors  has  a  Finance  Committee 
consisting  of  three  members  who  "shall  be  appointed 
annually  by  the  Christian  Science  Board  of  Directors 
and  with  the  consent  of  the  Pastor  Emeritus";  and  it 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  197 

also  has  a  Committee  oti  Business  of  three  members, 
*  Vho  shall  transact  promptly  and  efficiently  such  business 
as  Mrs.  Eddy,  the  Directors,  or  the  Committee  on  Pub- 
lication shall  commit  to  it,"  and  before  being  elected  to 
this  committee  the  names  of  the  candidates  "shall  be 
presented  to  Mrs.  Eddy  for  her  written  approval." 

The  two  readers  are  important  officers  in  the  Christian 
Science  Church.  How  are  they  elected?  * 'Every  third 
year  Readers  shall  be  elected  in  The  Mother  Church 
by  the  Board  of  Directors,  which  shall  inform  the  Pastor 
Emeritus  of  the  names  of  the  candidates  before  they  are 
elected;  and  if  she  objects,  said  candidates  shall  not  be 
chosen." 

But  how  are  readers  and  officers  in  branch  churches 
controlled?  This  "Manual"  of  rules  is  only  for  The 
Mother  Church,  and  branch  churches  are  forbidden  to 
adopt  or  even  copy  it.  "Each  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist, 
shall  have  its  own  form  of  government."  It  is  amusing 
to  read  that  "In  Christian  Science  each  branch  church 
shall  be  distinctly  democratic  in  its  government,  and  no 
individual,  and  no  other  church  shall  interfere  with  its 
affairs,"  after  every  trace  and  tincture  of  democracy  has 
been  wiped  and  washed  out  of  this  "Manual."  The 
branch  churches,  however,  with  their  readers  are  not  out 
of  the  control  of  The  Mother  Church  and  the  omnipresent 
and  omnipotent  "Pastor  Emeritus";  for  it  takes  at  least 
sixteen  members  to  organize  a  branch  church,  "four  of 
whom  are  members  of  The  Mother  Church,"  and  every 
reader  in  a  branch  church  must  be  a  member  of  The 
Mother  Church,  and  this  provision  puts  all  these  members 
and  readers  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  power;  for  by  Article  XI 
"upon  her  complaint"  the  Board  of  Directors  must  "drop 


198        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

forever"  any  member  who  works  against  *'what  she  under- 
stands is  advantageous  to  this  Church  and  to  the  Cause  of 
Christian  Science."  By  this  long  arm  Mrs.  Eddy  could 
reach  across  the  continent  and  around  the  world  and 
remove  any  reader  in  any  branch  church. 

This  provision  by  which  the  branch  churches  must  have 
members  and  readers  who  are  also  members  of  The  Mother 
Church  is  the  centralizing  agency  and  long  and  powerful 
arm  and  hand  by  which  the  branch  churches  are  kept  under 
control  of  the  directors  and  pastor  emeritus.  This  su- 
preme and  sacrosanct  sovereignty  of  The  Mother  Church  is 
the  reason  why  no  branch  church  can  use  the  article 
"The"  in  its  title.  "In  its  relation  to  other  Christian 
Science  churches,  in  its  By-Laws  and  self-government.  The 
Mother  Church  stands  alone;  it  occupies  a  position  that 
no  other  church  can  fill.  Then  for  a  branch  church  to 
assume  such  a  position  would  be  disastrous  to  Christian 
Science.  Therefore,  no  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist, 
shall  be  considered  loyal  that  has  branch  churches  or 
adopts  The  Mother  Church's  form  of  government,  except 
in  such  cases  as  are  specially  allowed  and  named  in  this 
Manual."  These  special  "cases"  are  the  apron  strings 
by  which  the  branch  churches  are  kept  closely  tied  to 
and  under  the  control  of  *'The  Mother  Church." 

In  addition  to  the  Board  of  Directors,  there  is  a  "Board 
of  Trustees,"  whose  appointment  is  "subject  to  the  ap- 
proval of  the  Pastor  Emeritus,"  who  "hold  and  manage 
the  property  conveyed"  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  Deed  of  Trust 
of  1898,  "and  conduct  the  business  of  'The  Christian 
Science  Publishing  Society'  on  a  strictly  Christian  basis, 
for  the  promotion  of  the  interests  of  Christian  Science." 
"The  Christian  Science  Board  of  Directors  shall  have 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  199 

the  power  to  declare  vacancies  in  said  trusteeship,  for 
such  reasons  as  to  the  Board  may  seem  expedient,"  only 
as  to  any  vacancy  *'the  Pastor  Emeritus  reserves  the 
right  to  fill  the  same  by  appointment."  This  relation  be- 
tween the  two  boards  has  resulted  in  the  lawsuit  between 
them,  which  is  threatening  to  disrupt  the  Christian  Science 
organization  to  which  reference  has  already  been  made.i 
Mrs.  Eddy  has  taken  the  utmost  precaution  and  pains 
to  control,  not  only  the  literature  of  her  church,  but 
even  what  her  followers  shall  buy  and  read  and  even 
what  bookstores  they  shall  patronize.  Article  VIII 
enjoins:  "A  member  of  this  Church  shall  neither  buy, 
sell,  nor  circulate  Christian  Science  literature  which  is 
not  correct  in  its  statement  of  the  divine  Principle  and 
rules  and  the  demonstration  of  Christian  Science.  .  .  A 
departure  from  the  spirit  or  letter  of  this  By-law  involves 
schisms  in  our  Church  and  the  possible  loss,  for  a  time, 
of  Christian  Science.  .  .  A  member  of  this  Church 
shall  not  patronize  a  publishing  house  or  bookstore  that 
has  for  sale  obnoxious  books."  This  is  a  rigid  censorship 
over  what  Christian  Scientists  shall  buy  and  read  and  even 
what  bookstores  they  shall  enter  that  surpasses  that  of 
the  "Index  Librorum  Prohibitorum"  or  of  any  other 
religious  censorship  in  the  world.  Mrs.  Josephine  C. 
Woodbury,  one  of  her  associates  for  many  years,  says 
that  Mrs.  Eddy  *'bids  her  followers  abjure  books,  papers, 
magazines,  or  anything  literary  except  the  Bible  and  her 
own  book."2     This  reveals  the  fear  she  had  of  modern 

1  Pp.  186  —188. 

2  Arena  for  May,  1899.  For  a  still  more  zealous  "war  against 
heresy"  that  was  "carried  on  too  zealously  at  last,"  see  Milmine, 
History,  p.  362.  "The  Journal  also  instructed  Mrs.  Eddy's  loyal 
students  to  burn  all  forbidden  literature." 


200        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

learning  and  light,  and  this  fear  was  well-grounded,  for 
our  whole  system  of  education  from  the  kindergarten 
to  the  university  and  all  our  science  and  Hterature  and 
all  the  libraries  in  the  world  are  in  direct  contradiction 
to  her  teaching.  Christian  Science  tries  as  far  as  possible 
to  keep  its  followers  immune  from  the  world's  literature 
and  to  supply  them  with  its  own  literature,  even  to  a  daily 
newspaper. 

All  the  editors  and  managers  of  the  Publishing  Society 
are  elected  *'by  a  unanimous  vote,  and  the  consent  of  the 
Pastor  Emeritus  given  in  her  own  handwriting."  This 
strangle  hold  of  her  own  consent  on  the  control  of  her 
Publishing  Society  is  drawn  still  tighter  so  as  to  include 
in  her  grip  the  humblest  janitor  or  office  boy  in  Article 
XXV,  which  provides:  "A  person  who  is  not  accepted  by 
the  Pastor  Emeritus  as  suitable,  shall  in  no  manner  be 
connected  with  publishing  her  books,  nor  with  editing 
or  publishing  The  Christian  Science  Journal,  Christian 
Science  Sentinel,  Der  Herold  der  Christian  Science,  nor 
with  The  Christian  Science  Publishing  Society." 

There  is  *'a  Board  of  Education,  under  the  auspices  of 
Mary  Baker  Eddy,  President  of  the  Massachusetts 
Metaphysical  College,  consisting  of  three  members,  a 
president,  vice-president,  and  teacher  of  Christian  Science. 
Obstetrics  will  not  be  taught."  The  enforcement  of  the 
law  following  disastrous  cases  of  malpractice  put  this 
last  provision  in  this  Manual.  "The  teacher  shall  be 
elected  every  third  year,"  "subject  to  the  approval 
of  the  Pastor  Emeritus." 

There  is  further  "a  Board  of  Lectureship,  the  members 
of  which  shall  be  elected,  .  .  subject  to  the  approval 
of    the    Pastor    Emeritus."     Until    1898    any    Christian 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  201 

Scientist  could  give  public  lectures  on  Christian  Science, 
but  this  privilege  and  duty  was  then  restricted  to  lecturers 
duly  appointed  with  Mrs.  Eddy's  approval.  "It  is  the 
duty  of  the  Board  of  Lectureship  to  include  in  each  lecture 
a  true  and  just  reply  to  public  topics  condemning  Christian 
Science,  and  to  bear  testimony  to  the  facts  pertaining  to 
the  life  of  the  Pastor  Emeritus.  Each  member  shall 
mail  to  the  clerk  of  this  church  copies  of  his  lectures 
before  delivering  them."  These  lecturers  are  able  men, 
gifted  and  trained  in  the  art  of  rhetoric  and  elocution, 
and  are  paid  very  large  salaries,  but  it  will  be  noticed 
that  they  are  not  trusted  to  say  a  word  without  submitting 
it  to  the  clerk  of  The  Mother  Church  who  is  under  Mrs. 
Eddy's  eye  and  control.  The  writer  has  listened  to  these 
lecturers  with  much  interest  and  no  little  amusement  as 
he  has  heard  them  smoothing  over  the  absurd  and  ab- 
horrent things  in  Christian  Science  with  discreet  silence 
and  plausible  speech  and  especially  as  they  bore  "testi- 
mony to  the  facts  pertaining  to  the  life  of  the  Pastor 
Emeritus,"  when  their  "facts"  were  so  carefully  selected 
and  subjectively  colored  and  there  are  so  many  undoubted 
facts  to  which  they  did  not  bear  testimony.  If  Article 
XXXI  of  their  Manual  is  enforced,  no  newspaper  reporter 
or  war  correspondent  was  ever  more  carefully  and  ruth- 
lessly censored  than  are  these  lecturers. 

There  is  a  Committee  on  Publication  "which  shall 
consist  of  one  loyal  Christian  Scientist  who  lives  in  Boston, 
and  he  shall  be  manager  of  the  Committees  on  Publication 
throughout  the  United  States,  Canada,  Great  Britian 
and  Ireland.  He  shall  be  elected  annually  by  a  unan- 
imous vote  of  the  Christian  Science  Board  of  Directors 
and  the  consent  of  the    Pastor    Emeritus."     "It    shall 


202        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

be  the  duty  of  the  Committee  on  Publication  to  correct 
in  a  Christian  manner  impositions  on  the  pubHc  in  regard 
to  Christian  Science,  injustices  done  Mrs.  Eddy  or  mem- 
bers of  this  Church  by  the  daily  press."  Arrangements 
are  made  for  appointing  a  similar  Committee  on  Pub- 
lication in  each  State,  Mrs.  Eddy  having  the  right  to  name 
the  candidate  for  the  office.  "Or  if  she  shall  send  a  special 
request  to  any  Committee  on  Publication,  the  request 
shall  be  carried  out  according  to  her  direction."  Prac- 
tically every  newspaper  and  periodical  is  kept  under  the 
surveillance  of  this  Committee,  and  when  an  article 
reflecting  on  Christian  Science,  especially  if  it  contains 
* 'injustices  done  Mrs.  Eddy,"  appears  in  a  paper,  the 
editor  of  it  quickly  receives  a  reply  or  a  visit  from  the 
^'Committee"  and  is  pestered  to  "correct"  the  "im- 
position." The  author  has  had  a  large  experience  in 
this  matter. 

Although  the  election  of  each  officer,  trustee,  president, 
clerk,  treasurer,  reader,  editor,  lecturer,  manager,  and 
employee  is  subject  to  the  consent  of  Mrs.  Eddy  in  the 
proper  article,  yet  to  make  assurance  doubly  sure  there 
is  a  blanket  provision  in  Article  XXII,  Section  3,  which 
declares  that  *Tt  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  officers  of  this 
Church"  and  of  the  editors  and  members  of  various 
boards  "promptly  to  comply  with  any  written  order, 
signed  by  Mary  Baker  Eddy,  which  applies  to  their 
official  functions.  Disobedience  to  this  By-Law  shall 
be  sufficient  cause  for  removal  of  the  offending  member 
from  office."  Any  vacancy  thus  caused  "shall  be  supplied 
by  a  majority  vote  of  the  Christian  Science  Board  of 
Directors,  and  the  candidate  shall  be  subject  to  the 
approval    of   Mary    Baker    Eddy."     Thus    a   Damocles 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  203 

sword,  "suspended  by  a  single  hair,"  hangs  over  the  head 
of  every  officer,  editor,  member  of  the  Committees  on 
PubUcation,  trustee  of  the  Pubhshing  Society,  or  of 
the  Board  of  Education  of  the  Christian  Science  Church, 
and  at  the  signal  of  the  pastor  emeritus  the  hair  is  severed. 
All  of  these  provisions,  depending  on  the  personal  consent 
*'in  her  own  handwriting"  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  ended,  of  course, 
with  her  life.  The  supreme  authority  of  the  Christian 
Science  Church  now  rests  in  or  between  the  two  Boards 
of  Directors  and  of  Trustees,  and  they  are  now  fighting 
out  the  question  of  which  is  supreme  between  themselves. 

The  members  of  The  Mother  Church  have  no  voice 
in  its  affairs.  "The  regular  meetings  of  The  Mother 
Church  shall  be  held  annually,  on  Monday  following 
the  first  Sunday  of  June.  No  other  than  its  officers  are 
required  to  be  present.  These  assemblies  shall  be  for 
listening  to  the  reports  of  Treasurer,  Clerk,  and  Com- 
mittees, and  general  reports  from  the  field."  The  business 
of  the  meeting  appears  to  be  confined  to  '^listening." 
The  clerk  can  call  a  special  meeting,  but  he  must  inform 
the  directors  and  pastor  emeritus  of  its  purpose  and 
have  their  consent  before  calling  it. 

It  is  not  easy  to  become  a  member  of  The  Mother 
Church.  A  complicated  process  of  application  and  in- 
dorsement must  be  passed  through,  and  the  blanks  to 
be  filled  out  look  like  an  application  for  life  insurance. 
There  is  only  one  way  of  getting  in,  but  there  are  thirteen 
ways  of  getting  out  by  excommunication. 

One  of  the  strictest  requirements  in  the  Manual  relates 
to  announcing  the  name  and  author  of  ''Science  and 
Health"  in  the  Christian  Science  service.  Like  some 
other  important  points,  it  is  repeated  several  times  and 


204        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

appears  near  the  beginning,  the  middle,  and  the  end  of 
the  book.  Article  I  enjoins  that  "The  Readers  of  'Science 
and  Health  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures'  before  commencing 
to  read  from  this  book,  shall  distinctly  announce  the  full 
title  of  the  book  and  give  the  author's  name.  Such 
announcement  shall  be  made  but  once  during  each  lesson." 
This  requirement  is  extended  to  all  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  books 
and  reasons  given  for  it  in  Article  XV  as  follows:  *'To 
pour  into  the  ears  of  listeners  the  sacred  revelations  of 
Christian  Science  indiscriminately,  or  without  character- 
izing their  origin  and  thus  distinguishing  them  from  the 
writings  of  authors  who  think  at  random  on  this  subject, 
is  to  lose  some  weight  in  the  scale  of  right  thinking. 
Therefore  it  is  the  duty  of  every  member  of  this  Church, 
when  publicly  reading  or  quoting  from  the  books  or  poems 
of  our  Pastor  Emeritus,  first  to  announce  the  name  of 
the  author.  Members  shall  also  instruct  their  pupils  to 
adopt  the  aforenamed  method  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Cause."  The  mass  of  confused  and  muddy  stuff  in 
"Science  and  Health,"  which  we  have  already  waded 
through,  is  thus  characterized  as  "sacred  revelations"; 
and  for  Mrs.  Eddy  to  speak  with  an  air  of  lofty  condescen- 
sion of  "the  writings  of  authors  who  think  at  random" 
and  of  losing  "some  weight  in  the  right  scale  of  thinking," 
is  a  delicious  instance  of  her  utter  lack,  not  only  of  a 
proper  literary  and  logical  sense,  but  also  of  a  sense  of 
humor. 

Prayer  m  the  Christian  Science  service  is  limited  to 
silent  prayer  and  The  Lord's  Prayer  with  Mrs.  Eddy's 
interpretation,  but  in  Article  VII  we  read  this  peculiar  pro- 
vision: "The  prayers  in  Christian  Science  churches  shall 
be    offered   for   the   congregations   collectively   and   ex- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  205 

clusively."  Does  this  mean  that  Christian  Scientists 
pray  only  for  those  found  in  Christian  Science  congre- 
gations? 

Sunday-school  scholars  shall  not  "remain  in  the  Sunday 
school  of  any  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  after  reaching 
the  age  of  twenty,"  and  they  "shall  be  taught  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  they  shall  be  instructed  according  to  their  under- 
standing or  ability  to  grasp  the  simpler  meanings  of  the 
divine  Principle  that  they  are  taught."  "The  instruction 
given  by  the  children's  teachers  must  not  deviate  from 
the  absolute  Christian  Science  contained  in  their  text- 
book." This  means  that  children  are  taught  perverted 
and  often  absurd  interpretations  of  Scripture  from  Genesis 
to  Revelation. 

Abundant  warnings  against  mental  malpractice  and 
heresy  are  scattered  through  the  Manual.  "It  shall  be 
the  duty  of  every  member  of  this  Church  to  defend 
himself  daily  against  aggressive  mental  suggestion." 
"Members  will  not  intentionally  or  knowKngly  mentally 
malpractice."  "If  a  member  of  this  Church  shall  depart 
from  the  Tenets  .  .  .  the  offender's  case  shall  be  tried 
and  said  member  exonerated,  put  on  probation,  or  ex- 
communicated." The  Board  of  Directors,  no  other 
persons  being  present,  "has  power  to  disciphne,  place  on 
probation,  remove  from  membership,  or  to  excommunicate 
members  of  The  Mother  Church."  As  we  have  already 
noted,  there  are  thirteen  offenses  which  may  be  punished 
with  excommunication,  some  of  them  very  trivial,  such 
as  annoying  Mrs.  Eddy. 

A  peculiar  provision  that  probably  arose  out  of  ex- 
perience is  that  "If  the  Clerk  of  this  Church  shall  receive 
a  communication  from  the   Pastor  Emeritus  which  he 


206        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

does  not  fully  understand,  he  shall  inform  her  of  this 
fact  before  presenting  it  to  the  Church  and  obtain  a  clear 
understanding  of  the  matter — then  act  in  accordance 
therewith."  E  at  a  meeting  of  the  church  doubt  or 
disagreement  arises  "as  to  the  signification  of  the  communi- 
cations of  the  Pastor  Emeritus  to  them,  before  action  is 
taken  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Clerk  to  report  to  her 
the  vexed  question  and  to  await  her  explanation  thereof.'* 
No  doubt  many  a  *Vexed  question*'  had  to  be  referred 
back  to  her  for  elucidation. 

Another  peculiar  provision  is  that  "Christian  Scientists 
shall  not  report  for  publication  the  number  of  members 
of  The  Mother  Church,  nor  that  of  branch  churches. 
According  to  the  Scripture  they  shall  turn  away  from 
personality  and  numbering  the  people.**  They  shall 
turn  away  from  every  "personality"  except  one,  and  that 
pervades  this  book  from  cover  to  cover.  In  accordance 
with  this  same  provision  as  to  undue  emphasis  upon 
"personality"  is  the  provision  that  "As  a  rule  there  should 
be  no  receptions  nor  festivities  after  a  lecture  on  Christian 
Science."  Every  care  seems  to  be  taken  that  no  "per- 
sonality" shall  ever  loom  up  into  conspicuous  comparison 
with  the  pastor  emeritus. 

Article  XXXV,  the  last  article  in  this  precious  book,  is 
devoted  exclusively  to  the  Manual  and  fastens  it  on  The 
Mother  Church  without  the  possibility  of  amendment 
forever.  Section  1  states  that  "It  stands  alone,  uniquely 
adapted  to  form  the  budding  thought  and  hedge  it  about 
with  divine  Love.  This  Manual  shall  not  be  revised 
without  the  written  consent  of  its  author."  Section  2 
says  that  the  members  of  the  Board  of  Directors,  Com- 
mittee on  Bible  Lessons,  and  Board  of  Trustees  "shall 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  207 

each  keep  a  copy  of  the  Seventy-third  Edition  and  of 
subsequent  editions  of  the  Church  Manual."  And 
Section  3  and  the  last  word  in  the  book  declares  that 
"No  Tenet  or  By-Law  shall  be  adopted,  nor  any  Tenet 
or  By-Law  amended  or  annulled,  without  the  written 
consent  of  Mary  Baker  Eddy,  the  author  of  our  text- 
book, 'Science  and  Health'."  Now  that  she  is  gone, 
there  is  no  power  on  earth  that  can  give  this  * 'written 
consent,"  and  these  by-laws  stand  unchangeable  and 
inviolate  to  the  end  of  time,  or  to  the  end  of  The  Mother 
Church.  She  affected  to  believe  that  she  was  legis- 
lating "for  the  race,"  and  left  no  room  for  any  son  or 
daughter  of  Adam  to  tamper  with  her  work.  Not  even 
an  angel  from  heaven  could  change  a  syllable  of  it.  This 
is  the  "dead  hand"  raised  to  the  highest  power,  and  it 
can  never  be  relaxed.  Boston  culture  may  breed  skepti- 
cism and  doubt  of  the  finality  of  some  of  these  "Tenets," 
emergencies  may  arise  in  some  far  distant  year  that 
would  call  for  revision  of  some  of  these  "By-Laws," 
Boards  of  Directors  and  Trustees  may  grow  angry  and 
furious  with  these  iron-bound  fetters,  the  right  of  private 
judgment  and  the  spirit  of  American  democracy  might 
be  born  in  the  minds  and  souls  of  the  members  and  officers 
of  this  Church  and  rebel  fiercely  against  these  bonds, 
but  all  their  doubts  and  difficulties  would  beat  against" 
the  fixed  and  final  prison  bars  of  this  Manual  in  vain. 

The  Moving  Finger  writes;  and  having  writ. 
Moves  on;  nor  all  your  Piety  nor  Wit 

Shall  lure  it  back  to  cancel  half  a  Line, 
Nor  all  your  Tears  wash  out  a  Word  of  it. 

This  is  the  way  the  matter  stands  as  left  by  Mrs.  Eddy. 
We  have  little  doubt  that  since  her  death  the  officers 


208        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

of  this  church  do  find  some  tolerable  way  of  meeting 
emergencies  and  getting  along.  But  in  so  far  as  they 
disregard  any  syllable  of  the  Manual  they  defy  her  author- 
ity; and  their  organization  is  still  a  highly  centralized, 
self -perpetuating,  despotic  autocracy  and  secret  conclave 
from  which  the  members  of  the  church  are  absolutely 
excluded  and  against  the  injustices  of  which  they  have 
not  the  slightest  redress. 

What  is  the  practical  working  of  this  autocratic  system  .^^ 
Does  the  American  spirit  of  democracy  and  justice  never 
arise  in  Christian  Scientists  and  rebel  against  it?  It 
certainly  does.  There  is  much  evidence  and  many  cases 
to  show  that  the  system  is  attended  with  a  great  deal 
of  unrest  and  strife  and  bitterness,  at  times  breaking  into 
open  defiance  and  rebellion,  to  be  promptly  followed  by 
excommunication.  The  various  early  secessions  from 
Mrs.  Eddy  sprang  from  this  spirit  of  revolt  against  her 
autocracy.  The  celebrated  case  of  Mrs.  Stetson  in  New 
York  throws  a  fierce  searchlight  into  the  working  of  the 
system,  and  she  herself  uttered  this  warning: 


Adherents  to  the  scientific  conception  of  Christian  Truth,  as  rep- 
resented in  branch  churches  throughout  the  world,  should  be  made 
aware  of  the  peril  which  we  are  persuaded  has  come  to  the  Cause 
through  the  overriding  of  spiritual  freedom  by  ecclesiastical  self- 
assertion  tending  to  stamp  out  a  conviction  of  Truth  as  enduring 
as  the  consciousness  of  man's  oneness  with  God.l 


A  more  recent  case  of  this  kind  occurred  in  the  First 
Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  of  St.  Louis,  of  which  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Leon  Greenbaum  were  members  and  officers. 
They  revolted  against  the  despotism  of  the  Manual  as 

1  Viial  Issues  in  Christian  Science,  p.  3, 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  209 

administered  by  The  Mother  Church  in  Boston  and  quickly 
had  their  names  removed  from  its  roll  and  from  member- 
ship in  the  St.  Louis  church.  Mr.  Greenbaum  wrote  to 
the  Boston  authorities:  "The  despotic  interpretation  and 
appUcation  of  the  Church  Manual  ...  is  the  invisible 
root  cause  of  the  fratricidal  strife  in  The  Mother  Church 
and  its  offspring  (the  branch  churches)  here  and  else- 
where." The  whole  case  is  set  forth  in  Mr.  Greenbaum's 
book  and  he  affirms  that  the  same  trouble  is  causing 
strife  "elsewhere."! 

We  must  not,  however,  attach  much  significance  to 
these  dissensions  as  a  means  of  undermining  Christian 
Science,  for  all  churches  have  been  subject  to  strife  and 
division.  The  Christian  Science  Church  has  more  to 
fear  from  the  peaceful  penetration  of  the  light  and  logic 
of  truth  as  it  gently  and  imperceptibly  permeates  its 
members.  The  blow  of  a  hammer  can  shatter  ice  into 
a  thousand  pieces,  but  every  piece  is  still  ice.  Only 
sunshine  can  melt  it  into  sweet  water. 

4.  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  SERVICE 

Did  the  reader  ever  attend  a  Christian  Science  church 
service  .f^  The  author  would  not  recommend  it  as  a  regular 
and  permanent  means  of  grace,  but  he  has  attended  such 
services  in  pursuance  of  this  study.  He  did  not  go  in 
any  spirit  of  disrespect,  much  less  of  ridicule,  for  he 
would  not  in  such  a  spirit  enter  a  Mohammedan  mosque 
or  a  Chinese  pagoda.  He  doubts  not  that  God  is  in  a 
Christian  Science  service,  for  he  is  in  all  places  and  has 
some  blessing  for  every  sincere  worshipper.  Christian  or 

1  Follow  Christ. 


210       THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

pagan,  however  mistaken  and  blinded  such  worshipper 
may  be. 

On  entering  a  Christian  Science  church  one  is  quickly 
impressed  with  the  air  of  quietness  and  reverence  in  the 
place.  The  people  enter  noiselessly  and  sit  in  silence, 
and  late  comers,  entering  while  some  exercise  is  going 
on,  are  shown  to  a  rear  seat  until  there  is  a  proper  place 
in  the  service  for  them  to  go  forward.  The  Christian 
Scientists  emphasize  the  value  of  silence  and  meditation 
and  practice  these  exercises  more  than  most  other  people. 
At  their  headquarters  in  each  city  they  have  a  "Silent 
Room"  where  anyone  can  enter  and  sit  in  silence  and  read 
Christian  Science  literature  or  engage  in  meditation.  We 
are  in  danger  of  losing  these  fine  means  of  grace  in  this 
noisy,  hurrying  age,  and  the  followers  of  this  faith  set 
us  a  good  example  in  this  respect.  The  congregation 
in  a  Christian  Science  church  appears  to  be  composed 
of  well-to-do  people,  and  it  is  known  that  nearly  all 
of  them  have  come  out  of  the  orthodox  churches,  for 
Christian  Science  wins  few  converts  out  of  what  is  known 
as  *'the  world."  Some  of  these  members  from  orthodox 
churches,  however,  having  made  trial  of  Christian  Science, 
have  returned  to  their  former  faith  and  fellowship. 

The  "Order  of  Service,"  consisting  of  fourteen  exercises, 
was  arranged  by  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  and  is  part  of  the 
inviolable  legacy  she  left  in  the  Manual.  This  order 
with  its  readings  for  each  Sunday  is  binding  on  The 
Mother  Church  and  all  branch  churches  the  world  around, 
and  the  service  held  in  the  morning  is  exactly  repeated  in 
the  evening.  There  is  a  very  similar  order  for  the  Wednes- 
day evening  meeting  and  also  for  the  Sunday  school,  and 
there  is  a  slightly  different  order  for  Thanksgiving  Day 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  211 

and  another  for  the  "communion  services  in  the  branch 
churches,"  the  communion  service  having  been  abohshed 
by  Mrs.  Eddy  in  The  Mother  Church.  The  ordinance 
of  communion  itself,  if  such  it  may  be  called,  consists 
merely  in  kneeling  "in  silent  communion,"  "concluded 
by  the  audible  repetition  of  The  Lord's  Prayer." 

The  references  to  the  readings  from  the  Scriptures 
and  "Science  and  Health"  are  selected  for  three  months 
and  published  in  The  Christian  Science  Quarterly.  These 
selections  constitute  the  sermon  for  the  services  and  must 
be  used  in  all  Christian  Science  churches. 

The  first  order  of  exercise  is  the  singing  of  a  hymn, 
the  singing  being  accompanied  by  an  organ  and  led  by  a 
soloist  who  is  usually  a  good  singer.  Christian  Scientists 
as  a  class  are  people  of  sensitive  nerves  if  not  of  esthetic 
sensibilities,  and  everything  about  their  church  buildings 
and  services  is  artistic  and  "done  decently  and  in  order," 
except  the  literary  style  of  the  readings  from  "Science 
and  Health"  and  the  "poetry"  of  some  of  their  hymns. 
The  Christian  Scientists  are  wealthy,  and  whatever 
money  can  buy  they  can  have;  but  there  are  some  things 
money  cannot  buy. 

The  Christian  Science  hymn  book  is  a  literary  curiosity. 
The  classical  psalms  and  hymns  of  Christianity,  in  their 
lofty  aspiration  and  nobility  of  thought  and  beauty  of 
literary  expression,  are  one  of  its  most  precious  fruits  and 
proofs,  and  any  religion  can  be  judged  by  its  hymns. 
Tried  by  this  test.  Christian  Science  fares  badly.  It  has 
few  hymns  of  its  own  production,  and  these  fall  painfully 
below  the  level  of  Christian  hymns.  In  the  Christian 
Science  hymn  book  there  are  five  hymns  by  Mrs.  Eddy, 
but  their  quality  is  poor,  both  in  poverty  of  thought  and 


£12        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

commonplace,  unpoetic  expression.  Dr.  T.  G.  Moulton 
characterizes  these  hymns  as  "the  dreariest  doggerel 
sung  to  noble  tunes. "^  The  tunes,  of  course,  are  ap- 
propriated along  with  the  hymns,  for  Christian  Science 
appears  to  be  as  barren  of  musical  genius  as  of  literary 
taste. 

Having  few  of  its  own.  Christian  Science  has  boldly 
laid  hands  on  many  of  our  classical  hymns,  prostituting 
them  to  a  sense  and  use  which  their  authors  would  have 
abhorred.  It  is  unjust  to  the  memory  of  Watts  and 
Wesley  and  Whittier,  Toplady  and  Newman  and  other 
honored  hymn  writers,  to  drag  them  into  the  company  of 
Mrs.  Eddy  and  force  them  unwittingly  to  serve  at  her 
strange  altar. 

It  is  admitted  in  the  Preface  to  this  book  that  these 
hymns  do  not  properly  express  Christian  Science  ideas, 
which,  of  course,  they  were  never  meant  to  and  cannot 
honestly  be  made  to  do,  and  so  they  are  put  through  a 
process  of  adaptation,  which  is  often  a  surgical  operation 
of  sad  mutilation  and  sometimes  of  grotesque  perversion. 
The  hymns  are  also  usually  abridged  to  two  or  three  or 
at  the  most  to  four  or  five  verses,  and  this  abbreviation 
is  not  altogether  a  fault  as  it  helps  to  shorten  the  service. 
In  fact,  brevity  is  a  virtue  of  the  whole  service,  for 
Christian  Scientists  are  always  sensitive  to  their  own 
comfort  and  are  careful  to  avoid  fatigue,  although,  of 
course,  there  is  no  such  thing  and  it  is  only  a  form  of  the 
"nothingness"  of  "mortal  mind." 

As  an  example  of  the  way  in  which  Christian  Scientists 
tamper  with  our  Christian  hymns  we  give  Toplady's 
*'Ilock  of  Ages"  as  it  appears  in  their  hymn  book: 

1  An  Exposure  of  Christian  Science,  p.  17. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  213 

Rock  of  Ages,  Truth,  Divine, 
Be  Thy  strength  forever  mine; 
Let  me  rest  secure  in  Thee, 
Safe  above  life's  raging  sea. 

Rock  of  Truth,  our  fortress  strong. 
Refuge  from  the  shafts  of  wrong. 
When  from  foes  of  sense  I  flee. 
Let  me  hide  myself  in  Thee. 

Truth  of  Christ,  asylum  sure. 
On  this  rock  we  are  secure; 
Cure  is  there  for  every  ill. 
Peace  is  there  our  life  to  fill. 

This  is  only  a  parody  and  a  very  poor  one  at  that 
on  one  of  the  noblest  hymns  in  the  English,  language, 
and  everyone  with  any  poetic  sense  must  feel  the  outrage 
it  commits.  We  devoutly  wish  that  the  Christian  Scien- 
tists would  keep  their  hands  off  our  Christian  hymns 
and  prayers  and  write  their  own. 

The  second  order  of  the  service  is  **Reading  a  Scriptural 
Selection,"  which  is  read  by  the  First  Reader. 

The  third  order  is  * 'Silent  Prayer,  followed  by  the  audible 
repetition  of  The  Lord's  Prayer  with  its  spiritual  inter- 
pretation." No  audible  prayer  is  offered  in  the  service, 
with  the  exception  noted,  for  Mrs.  Eddy  condemned 
such  prayer,  as  has  already  been  seen,  and,  indeed,  cut 
up  the  real  roots  of  all  prayer  by  declaring  that  *'God  is 
not  influenced  by  man."  We  would  suppose  that  silent 
prayer  is  subject  to  the  same  limitation. 

The  readers  alternately  render  the  petitions  of  the 
prayer  and  its  interpretation.  The  Manual  provides  that 
these  readers  shall  be  *'a  man  and  a  woman"  and  they  are 
to  be  "exemplary  Christians  and  good  English  scholars." 
The  author  does  not  know  about  their  English  scholar- 
ship  and  can   only  hope    that  it  is  better  than  that  of 


214        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Mrs.  Eddy  herself,  but  he  can  testify  that  as  many  of 
them  as  he  has  heard  are  good  readers,  rendering  the  text 
with  admirable  voice  and  modulation,  distinctness  and 
purity  of  tone,  so  that  their  reading  is  beautiful  elo- 
cution; and  in  this  fine  art  they  are  models  for  all 
preachers  and  readers. 

The  Second  Reader,  who  is  the  woman,  reads  each 
petition  of  The  Lord's  Prayer,  and  then  the  First  Reader 
reads  *'its  spiritual  interpretation."  Formerly  this  order 
of  the  readers  was  the  reverse,  but  Mrs.  Eddy  changed 
it  to  the  present  order  and  thereby  seems  to  have  indicated 
her  estimate  of  the  relative  values  or  importance  of  the 
two  forms.  The  Manual  says  that  "It  shall  be  the  duty 
of  the  First  Reader  to  conduct  the  principal  part  of  the 
Sunday  services."  This  "spiritual  interpretation,"  has 
already  been  given  l  which  at  first  had  a  very  different 
form,  but  like  Mrs.  Eddy's  book  was  subject  to  any  degree 
of  change  and  finally  was  given  its  present  shape.  Of 
all  the  offenses  of  "the  Founder"  and  the  followers  of 
Christian  Science  this  is  the  worst,  unless  it  be  her  travesty 
of  a  "communion  service."  It  perverts  the  prayer  at 
every  point  and  is  an  exegetical  and  literary  outrage  which 
justly  excites  the  indignation  of  Christians  the  world 
over.  That  this  illiterate  and  uncultivated  and  morbidly 
egotistical  and  madly  presumptuous  woman  should  dare 
to  lay  her  vandal  hands  on  these  simple  and  noble  words 
that  fell  from  the  lips  of  our  Lord  and  that  in  their  lofty 
devotion  and  literary  beauty  are  one  of  the  most  sacred  and 
precious  treasures  of  the  world  in  every  land  and  language 
is  a  shame  that  Christian  Scientists  should  blush  to  rec- 
ognize and  honor  in  their  services. 

1  P.  104. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  215 

The  fifth  order  is  another  hymn,  and  then  follows 
"Announcing  necessary  notices."  The  emphasis  falls 
on  the  word  "necessary'*  in  this  notice,  for  the  Manual 
orders  that  tlie  readers  "shall  make  no  remarks  explanatory 
of  the  Lesson  sermon  at  any  time,  but  they  shall  read  all 
notices  and  remarks  that  may  be  printed  in  the  Christian 
Science  Quarterly."  Mrs.  Eddy  was  always  extraordinarily 
watchful  and  suspicious  of  every  word  spoken  or  written 
by  anybody  except  herself.  Hence  outside  of  the  local 
notices  expressed  in  the  fewest  words  there  is  not  a  word 
said  in  a  Christian  Science  service  except  what  has  been 
dictated  and  printed  for  the  readers.  If  one  of  them  were 
to  offer  a  word  of  extempore  prayer  or  of  comment  on  the 
"Lesson  sermon,"  it  would  shock  the  congregation  as 
an  unheard-of,  forbidden,  and  scandalous  thing.  It  is 
remarkable  to  what  extent  Mrs.  Eddy,  being  dead,  yet 
speaks. 

The  sixth  order  is  a  "solo."  "The  solo  singer,"  says 
the  Manual  "shall  not  neglect  to  sing  any  special  hymn 
selected  by  the  Board  of  Directors."  "The  Board  of 
Directors"  is,  or  was,  Mrs.  Eddy. 

The  seventh  order  is  "Reading  the  explanatory  note 
on  first  leaf  of  quarterly."     This  note  reads  as  follows: 

Friends. — The  Bible  and  the  Christian  Science  textbook  are  our 
only  preachers.  We  shall  now  read  Scriptural  texts,  and  their  cor- 
relative passages  from  our  denominational  textbook — these  comprise 
our  sermon.  The  canonical  writings,  together  with  the  word  of  our 
textbook,  corroborating  and  explaining  the  Bible  texts  in  their 
spiritual  import  and  application  to  all  ages,  past,  present,  and 
future,  constitute  a  sermon  undivorced  from  truth,  uncontaminated 
and  unfettered  by  human  hypotheses,  and  divinely  authorized. 

The  eighth  order  is  * 'Announcing  the  subject  of  the 
Lesson-Sermon,  and  reading  the  Golden  Text." 


216       THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

The  ninth  order  is  "Reading  the  Scriptural  selection, 
entitled  *Responsive  Reading,'  alternately  by  the  First 
Reader  and  the  congregation.*'  This  responsive  reading 
is  printed  in  the  quarterly. 

The  tenth  order  is  "Reading  the  Lesson-Sermon. 
(After  the  Second  Reader  reads  the  Bible  references  of 
the  first  Section  of  the  Lesson,  the  First  R^eader  makes 
the  following  announcement:  *As  announced  in  the  ex- 
planatory note,  I  shall  now  read  correlative  passages  from 
the  Christian  Science  textbook,  "Science  and  Health  with 
Key  to  the  Scriptures,"  by  Mary  Baker  Eddy.')" 

The  lesson  sermon  for  January  4,  1920,  consisted  of 
six  groups  of  selections,  arranged  in  parallel  columns, 
the  Bible  references  on  the  left  side  and  the  references  to 
"Science  and  Health"  on  the  right  side  of  the  page.  One 
or  two  of  these  selections  will  illustrate  the  appositeness 
of  the  "correlative  passages."  One  Scripture  reference 
is  II  Sam.  23:1-4,  which  reads  as  follows: 


Now  these  are  the  last  words  of  David. 

David  the  son  of  Jesse  saith, 

And  the  man  who  was  raised  on  high  saith. 

The  anointed  of  the  God  of  Jacob, 

And  the  sweet  psalmist  of  Israel: 

The  spirit  of  Jehovah  spake  by  me. 

And  his  word  was  upon  my  tongue. 

The  God  of  Israel  said. 

The  Rock  of  Israel  spake  to  me: 

One  that  ruleth  over  men  righteously. 

That  ruleth  in  the  fear  of  God, 

He  shall  be  as  the  light  of  the  morning,  when  the  sun 

riseth, 
A  morning  without  clouds. 

When  the  tender  grass  springeth  out  of  the  earth. 
Through  clear  shining  after  rain. 

The    "correlative   passage"    set    over    against   this   is 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  217 

"Science  and  Health,"  p.  469,  lines  13-21,  which  reads 
as  follows: 

Mind  is  God.  The  exterminator  of  error  is  the  great  truth  that 
God,  good,  is  the  only  Mind,  and  that  the  supposititious  opposite  of 
infinite  Mind — called  devil  or  evil — is  not  Mind,  is  not  Truth,  but 
error,  without  intelligence  or  reality.  There  can  be  but  one  Mind, 
because  there  is  but  one  God;  and  if  mortals  claimed  no  other  Mind 
and  accepted  no  other,  sin  would  be  unknown.  We  can  have  but 
one  Mind,  if  that  one  is  infinite.  We  bury  the  sense  of  infinitude, 
when  we  admit  that,  although  God  is  infinite,  evil  has  a  place  in 
this  infinity,  for  evil  can  have  no  place,  where  all  space  is  filled  with 
God. 

A  Scripture  passage  from  the  New  Testament  is  Acts 
17:24-27,  which  reads  as  follows: 

The  God  that  made  the  world  and  all  things  therein,  he,  being 
Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  dwelleth  not  in  temples  made  with  hands, 
as  though  he  needed  anything,  seeing  he  himself  giveth  to  all  life, 
and  breath,  and  all  things;  and  he  made  of  one  every  nation  of  men 
to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth,  having  determined  their  ap- 
pointed seasons,  and  the  bounds  of  their  habitation;  that  they  should 
seek  God,  if  haply  they  might  feel  after  him  and  find  him,  though  he 
is  not  far  from  each  one  of  us. 

The  "correlative  passage"  from  "Science  and  Health" 
is  p.  542,  beginning  with  line  29  and  is  as  follows: 

The  sinful  misconception  of  Life  as  something  less  than  God, 
having  no  truth  to  support  it,  falls  back  upon  itself.  This  error, 
after  reaching  the  climax  of  suffering,  yields  to  Truth  and  returns 
to  dust;  but  it  is  only  mortal  man  and  not  the  real  man,  who  dies. 
The  image  of  Spirit  cannot  be  effaced,  since  it  is  the  idea  of  Truth 
and  changes  not,  but  becomes  more  beautifully  apparent  at  error's 
demise. 

These  are  the  kind  of  "correlative  passages"  which  are 
indicated  in  the  forty  pages  of  this  quarterly  for  the  first 
three  months  of  the  year  1920.  Has  the  reader  detected 
the  slightest  connection  between  the  Scripture  passages 


218         THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

and  the  "correlative  passages"  that  give  their  "spiritual 
import  and  application  to  all  ages,  past,  present,  and 
future"?  Would  not  selections  from  a  Patent  Office 
Report  or  from  "Mother  Goose"  have  as  much  relation 
to  these  verses  of  Scripture  as  these  "correlative  passages"? 
Does  it  not  show  a  woeful  lack  of  logical  sense  and  literary 
taste  and  is  it  not  sacrilegious  to  put  such  confused  and 
inane  thought  and  tawdry  rhetoric  as  these  selections 
from  Mrs.  Eddy's  book  in  comparison  with  these  noble 
and  beautiful  passages  of  Scripture  ?  One  can  only  wonder 
at  the  education  and  culture  of  the  people  who  week  after 
week  sit  and  listen  to  this  "Lesson-Sermon." 

The  eleventh  order  is  a  "collection."  This  collection 
is  for  their  own  support,  as  the  Christian  Scientists  do 
not  maintain  hospitals  or  schools  or  carry  on  any  charitable 
or  philanthropic  work.l  It  would  not  be  logical  for  them 
to  do  anything  that  would  recognize  disease  or  poverty 
or  any  physical  condition  as  a  reality.  The  cry  of  the 
poor  and  the  suffering  does  not  reach  them  for  their  cure 
for  these  things  is  to  deny  and  forget  them. 

The  twelfth  order  is  a  hymn,  and  then  while  the  people 
are  standing  follows  the  thirteenth  order  which  is  "Reading 
*The  scientific  statement  of  being,'  and  the  correlative 
Scripture  according  to  I  John  3:1-3."  This  "scientific 
statement  of  being"  is  the  following: 

There  is  no  life,  truth,  intelligence,  nor  substance  in  matter. 
All  is  infinite  Mind,  and  its  infinite  manifestation,  for  God  is  all 
in  all.  Spirit  is  immortal  Truth,  matter  is  mortal  error.  Spirit  is 
real  and  eternal;  matter  is  the  unreal  and  temporal.  Spirit  is  God, 
and  man  is  His  image  and  likeness;  hence  man  is  spiritual  and  not 
material. 

1  "The  Christian  Science  Benevolent  Association,"  for  the  benefit 
of  its  own  members  was  opened  by  The  Mother  Church  in  Boston 
in  October,  1919. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  219 

During  the  whole  service  one  idea  and  utterance  is 
being  constantly  dingdonged  into  the  ear,  in  one  or  another 
form:  "There  is  no  matter,"  "matter  is  nothing,"  "all 
is  Mind."  It  becomes  as  monotonous  to  the  ear  and  as 
deadening  to  the  interest  of  the  mind  as  the  continual 
sawing  on  one  string  of  a  violin  or  as  the  constant  dropping 
of  water.  After  all  this  iteration  and  reiteration  for 
possibly  the  hundredth  time  comes  this  final  "scientific 
statement  of  being"  in  which  the  eternal  assertion  that 
"matter  is  mortal  error"  is  emphasized  one  more  time, 
or  rather  half  a  dozen  times  more.  The  last  order  is 
"Pronouncing  the  Benediction,"  which  consists  of  a  verse 
of  Scripture. 

Then,  with  the  echo  ringing  in  our  ears  that  "matter 
is  mortal  error"  we  escape  into  God's  out  of  doors  and 
rejoice  with  exceeding  joy  that  we  are  back  again  in  the 
world  of  reality  with  its  green  grass  and  blue  sky  and 
singing  birds  and  shining  sun  and  healthful  food  and  drink 
and  work  and  rest,  of  the  faces  of  our  friends  and  the  play 
of  children,  in  God's  world  of  common  sense. 

5.  WHAT  IS  THE  MEMBERSHIP  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH? 

When  one  sees  the  large  and  costly  churches  Christian 
Scientists  have  erected  in  many  of  our  cities,  the  im- 
pression is  received  that  they  are  a  large  and  wealthy 
body;  and  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  think  that  they  are  a 
feeble  folk,  although  few  of  the  influential  people  of  a  city 
are  found  among  them.  When  we  endeavor,  however,  to 
find  out  their  real  number,  we  are  blocked.  The  author 
personally  applied  to  a  high  Christian  Science  ofl&cial  for  the 
facts  on  this  point  and  was  told  that  they  were  not  giving 
out  such  information  and  that  he  himself  did  not  know. 


220        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

In  the  federal  census  of  1890  the  Christian  Scientists 
reported  221  churches  and  8724  members,  an  average  of 
40  members  to  each  church.  In  the  census  of  1906,  the 
next  census  that  gathered  statistics  of  the  churches,  they 
reported  82,332  members  and  16,116  Sunday-school 
scholars.!  This  is  an  astonishing  rate  of  growth,  being 
tenfold  or  1000  per  cent  in  16  years.  This  was  the  fruitful 
springtime   and   youthful   heyday  of  Christian  Science. 

But  after  the  census  report  of  1906  something  happened. 
Up  to  and  including  this  census  the  Christian  Scientists 
made  their  reports  along  with  all  other  churches,  but 
after  the  1906  census  they  stopped  making  such  reports 
and  have  ever  since  refused  to  make  any,  or  give  out  any 
information  as  to  their  numbers.  Mrs.  Eddy  wrote 
this  sudden  and  peculiar  change  of  policy  into  her  Manual 
in  Article  VIII,  Section  28,  which  reads  as  follows : 

Numbering  the  People.  Section  28.  Christian  Scientists  shall 
not  report  for  publication  the  number  of  the  members  of  The  Mother 
Church,  nor  that  of  the  branch  churches.  According  to  Scripture 
they  shall  turn  away  from  personality  and  numbering  the  people. 

Why  was  this  by-law  adopted  and  why  does  not  the 
Christian  Science  Church  give  out  its  statistics  like  other 
churches?  The  reason  given  is  that  Christian  Scientists 
"according  to  Scripture  shall  turn  away  from  personality 
and  numbering  the  people,"  but  this  sounds  insincere. 
Why,  then,  did  they  give  out  statistics  up  to  1906.?  Was 
not  this  "personality"  and  "numbering  the  people"? 
Mrs.  Eddy  was  not  averse  to  "personality"  when  it  was 
her  own  personality,  and  she  appears  to  have  taken  satis- 

1  These  figures  are  taken  from  Dr.  H.  K.  Carroll's  Religious 
Forces  of  the  United  States,  revised  edition  of  1912.  He  does  not 
give  the  number  of  Christian  Science  churches  for  1906, 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CHURCH  221 

faction  in  "numbering  the  people"  as  long  as  her  people 
were  increasing.  This  change  of  policy  creates  the 
suspicion  that  the  rapid  rate  of  increase  that  was  so 
marked  up  to  1906  soon  thereafter  began  to  slow  down 
and  approach  a  standstill,  and  that  it  was  this  fact  that 
stopped  the  publication  of  "numbering  the  people."  Dr. 
Carroll,  who  is  our  highest  authority  on  religious  statistics, 
in  a  personal  communication  to  the  author  gives  it  as  his 
opinion  that  decrease  in  growth  was  the  real  reason  for  this 
change,  and  they  refused  to  make  a  report  to  the  federal 
religious  census  of  1916. 

But  though  Christian  Scientists  will  not  tell,  yet  there 
is  a  way  of  making  a  fairly  accurate  estimate  of  their 
numbers.  They  do  officially  publish  in  the  Journal  one 
important  basis  of  calculation  and  that  is  a  complete  list  of 
all  their  churches  and  societies  in  the  world.  The  author 
has  made  a  careful  count  of  these  lists  in  two  issues  of  the 
Journal  sixteen  months  apart.  In  the  issue  of  August, 
1918,  there  is  a  total  of  1576  organizations,  1386  in  the 
United  States  and  190  in  foreign  countries.  Of  these 
organizations  in  the  United  States  789  are  churches  and 
597  are  societies,  a  society  being  a  group  not  yet  incor- 
porated into  a  church.  Of  the  organizations  in  foreign 
countries  89  are  churches  and  101  are  societies.  In  the 
issue  of  December,  1919,  there  is  a  total  of  1702  organi- 
zations, 1504  in  the  United  States  and  198  in  foreign 
countries.  In  the  United  States  there  are  840  churches 
and  664  societies,  and  in  foreign  countries  there  are  122 
churches  and  76  societies.  During  the  sixteen  months 
between  these  two  issues  the  total  number  of  organizations 
increased  eight  per  cent,  the  churches  in  the  United  States 
increased  six  and  one-half  per  cent,  and  the    societies 


222        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

eleven  per  cent.  This  is  a  tremendous  falling  off  in  the 
rate  of  increase  from  the  1000  per  cent  increase  between 
the  censuses  of  1890  and  1906.  If  this  rate  had  been 
maintained  during  the  16  months  the  increase  would  have 
been  83  instead  of  8  per  cent.  AVe  are  well  aware  that 
the  growth  of  a  body  slows  down  as  it  grows  older  and 
larger,  but  this  falling  off  is  ominously  large  and  rapid. 

On  the  basis  of  the  number  of  churches  and  societies 
can  we  estimate  the  present  membership  of  the  Christian 
Science  church.'^  What  is  the  average  membership  of  the 
962  churches  in  the  world  .^^  Of  course  some  of  them  have 
a  large  membership  running  up  toward  a  thousand. 
The  Mother  Church,  according  to  the  secretary's  report 
in  June,  1907,  had  43,876,  but  many  of  these  were  also 
members  of  the  branch  churches.  Many  Christian 
Science  churches  are  very  small;  many  of  them  do  not 
have  church  buildings,  but  meet  in  halls  or  other  rented 
places.  We  would  think  that  an  average  membership  of 
100  each  would  not  be  far  wrong,  and  this  would  yield 
96,200  members.  There  are  also  740  societies,  and  as 
these  are  mostly  small  unincorporated,  groups  of  people 
we  would  suppose  they  do  not  average  above  25  members 
each,  and  this  would  give  18,500  members:  a  total  for  the 
world  of  114,700  Christian  Scientists.  If  this  number  is 
seriously  wrong,  only  the  Christian  Science  officials  are 
to  blame  for  it.  Let  them  come  out  with  their  statistics 
as  other  churches  do.  "He  that  doeth  the  truth  cometh 
to  the  light." 

Such  competent  judges  as  Dr.  H.  K.  Carroll  and  Dr. 
Horatio  W.  Dresser  think  that  Christian  Science  has 
about  reached  its  flood  and  that  its  tide  will  soon 
turn. 


CHAPTER  IX 

MIND  HEALING  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CURES 

Christian  Science  was  at  first  purely  a  method  of  mental 
healing,  as  was  indicated  in  the  title  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  book 
"Science  and  Health"  before  she  turned  her  system  into 
a  religion  and  added  to  her  book  the  "Key  to  the  Scrip- 
tures." Mental  healing  is  still  the  stronghold  of  Christian 
Science,  and  we  shall  now  examine  this  part  of  its  claim 
and  work.  Our  general  attitude  toward  this  feature  of 
Mrs.  Eddy's  system  is  not  that  of  wholesale  denial  but 
rather  that  of  discrimination  and  explanation. 

1.  MIND  HEALING  IN  GENERAL 

The  practical  interaction  of  the  soul  and  the  body  is 
one  of  the  most  familiar  experiences  of  life.  The  soul 
expresses  itself  through  the  body.  The  mind  utters  its 
thought  through  language,  feature,  and  movement.  Joy 
wreathes  the  face  in  smiles,  grief  drenches  it  with  tears, 
modesty  dyes  it  with  a  crimson  blush,  and  fear  blanches 
it  white. 

All  the  emotions  of  the  heart  paint  themselves  on  the 
face.  The  will  moves  every  voluntary  muscle  and  nerve  to 
do  its  work,  and  the  unconscious  mind  pervades  and 
animates  the  whole  organism.  The  soul  pours  through  the 
body,  as  the  sap  circulates  in  the  tree  and  exudes  in  every 
leaf  and  blossom,  and  thus  manifests  its  whole  inner  life. 
Not  only  the  tongue  speaks,  but  the  eye  is  eloquent, 

223 


224        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

the  flushed  face  is  charged  with  meaning,  and  every 
feature  blabs.  So,  also,  the  body  acts  upon  the  soul, 
exciting  in  it  sensation  and  thought,  stirring  up  its  feelings, 
moving  its  will,  causing  it  to  leap  with  joy  or  cry  out  in 
pain,  and  thus  flooding  it  with  stimulating  influences. 
Knowing  how  the  soul  and  body  are  thus  closely  connected 
as  causes  or  signs  of  each  other's  condition,  from  the  state 
of  the  one  we  can  infallibly  infer  the  state  of  the  other. 
From  seeing  the  face  we  can  tell  the  state  of  the  soul, 
and  from  the  state  of  the  soul  we  can  describe  the  features 
of  the  face.  It  is  true  that  the  ultimate  nature  of  the 
relation  of  the  soul  and  the  body  is  unknown  to  us  and 
is  one  of  the  unsolved  problems  and  deepest  mysteries 
of  philosophy.  1  We  may  not  know  where  the  psychical 
leaves  off  and  the  physiological  and  the  physical  begin, 
or  whether  they  are  of  diverse  or  of  the  same  fundamental 
nature.  But  we  do  know  that  they  powerfully  affect  each 
other.  The  mind  under  a  great  stroke  of  sorrow  may 
whiten  the  hair  and  blast  and  wither  the  body  in  a  single 
night,  and  a  flood  of  great  joy  may  revive  and  rejuvenate 
it,  so  that  the  body  seems  like  wax  in  the  flame  of  the 
mind.  The  *'stigmata"  of  the  saints,  in  which  the  mind 
burnt  right  through  the  body,  are  supported  by  weighty 
evidence.2  *Tt  is  quite  impossible,"  says  a  high  authority. 
Dr.  Albert  Moll,  "to  assign  any  limit  to  the  influence  of  the 
mind  upon  the  body,  which  is  probably  much  more  potent 
and  far-reaching  than  we  are  usually  prepared  to  admit. "^ 

1  For  a  discussion  of  this  problem,  see  the  author's  The  World  a 
Spiritual  System;  an  Outline  of  Metaphysics,  pp.  116,  117,  226-233. 
See  also  H.  R.  Marshall's  Mind  and  Conduct,  pp.  215-230. 

2  See  Carpenter's  Mental  Physiology,  p.  689. 

3  Quoted  by  R.  H.  Hutton  in  his  Aspects  of  Religious  and  Scientific 
Thought,  p.  161. 


MIND  HEALING  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CURES  225 

The  mind  thus  masters  matter,  melts  down  its  "too, 
too  solid  flesh,"  so  to  speak,  and  casts  it  in  its  own 
mold. 

The  mind  in  some  degree  controls  the  body  by  its 
voluntary  will  as  is  the  case  in  all  our  speech  and  behavior; 
and  the  voluntary  will  can  go  further  and  raise  or  depress 
the  spirits,  affect  the  action  of  the  heart,  and  exert  a 
pronounced  influence  over  the  general  condition  and  health 
of  the  body.  But  the  far  greater  and  deeper  control  of 
the  mind  over  the  body  is  exercised  by  the  subconscious 
mind,  the  unconscious  deep  in  the  soul  which  appears  to 
be  the  greater  and  even  vastly  the  greater  part  of  its  life. 
It  is  this  ^'underground"  region  of  the  soul,  which  may  be 
compared  to  the  basement  and  cellar  of  a  great  building, 
in  which  are  stored  all  our  past  thoughts  and  actions 
and  out  of  which  ancestral  and  racial  instincts  and  per- 
sonal habits  and  memories  and  impulses  emerge  into  our 
conscious  life;  and  it  is  this  unconscious  mind  that  acts 
through  the  sympathetic  nervous  system  to  operate  and 
control  the  organic  activities  of  the  body.  This  sub- 
consciousness is  reached  in  hypnotism  and  by  other  forms 
and  means  of  suggestion,  and  can  thus  be  turned  to  exer- 
cise its  influence  and  control  over  the  body  so  as  to  affect 
its  health  in  both  causing  and  curing  disease. 

The  action  of  the  mind  on  the  body  in  connection  with 
health  and  disease  has  been  known  and  used  from  ancient 
times.  In  Proverbs,  ch.  17:22  we  read,  "A  cheerful 
heart  is  a  good  medicine."  Celsus,  a  Roman  medical 
writer  of  the  first  century,  a.d.,  wrote,  *Tt  is  the  mark  of 
a  skilled  practitioner  to  sit  awhile  by  the  bedside  with  a 
blithe  countenance."  And  Cassiodorus,  of  the  sixth 
century,  wrote,  *'To  give  joy  to  the  sick  is  natural  healing; 


226        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

for  once  make  your  patient  cheerful,  and   his    cure    is 
accomplished." 

In  modern  times  this  agency  in  curing  disease  has  come 
into  wide  use.  An  extensive  literature  has  already  grown 
up  and  is  rapidly  increasing  in  this  field.  Dr.  A.  T. 
Schofield,  an  English  medical  authority,  has  published 
seven  or  eight  volumes  on  the  subject,  of  which  the  one 
entitled  *'The  Force  of  Mind;  or,  The  Mental  Factor  in 
Medicine,"  is  one  of  the  best  for  lay  readers.  It  is  packed 
with  facts  and  quotations  from  medical  authorities  and 
gives  a  list  of  more  than  a  hundred  books  and  articles  on 
the  subject.  These  authorities  maintain  that  functional 
diseases  can  be  cured  or  helped  by  mental  means,  and  some 
of  them  admit  that  at  least  some  organic  diseases  can  be 
helped  or  cured  by  the  same  means.  The  two  kinds  of 
diseases  run  into  each  other  so  that  no  sharp  line  of  dis- 
tinction can  be  drawn  between  them.  Dr.  Schofield 
quotes  the  English  medical  authority,  Dr.  Daniel  Hack 
Tuke,  as  saying  that  "mental  therapeutics  without  hypno- 
tism can  cure  toothache,  sciatica,  painful  joints,  rheuma- 
tism, gout,  pleuro-dynia,  colic,  epilepsy,  whooping  cough, 
contracted  Kmbs,  paralysis,  headaches,  neuralgias,  con- 
stipation, asthma,  warts,  scurvy,  dropsy,  intermittent 
fever,  alcoholism,  typhoid  fever,  and  avert  impending 
death."  Other  authorities,  such  as  Dr.  Weir  Mitchell  and 
Dr.  Woods  Hutchinson,  regard  such  statements  as  ex- 
aggerations, but  they  all  admit  that  the  mind  has  a  wide 
field  and  is  a  great  power  as  a  curative  agent.  At  the 
least  it  is  admitted  that  the  depressed  condition  of 
the  mind  may  lower  the  vitality  and  resisting  power  of  the 
body  to  the  point  where  it  falls  a  prey  to  diseases  of  all 
kinds. 


MIND  HEALING  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CURES  227 

It  is  not  asserted  that  the  mind  can  cure  disease  by  a 
sheer  act  of  will,  though  it  can  often  do  much  and  some- 
times work  wonders  in  this  way,  but  that  the  general 
state  and  action  of  the  mind  furnish  the  conditions  in 
which  disease  may  disappear  and  health  be  restored. 
Hypnotic  suggestion,  by  which  suggestions  counter- 
acting disease  are  planted  in  the  subconscious  mind,  plays 
an  important  part  in  the  theory  and  practice  of  some 
mental  healers;  and  however  it  may  be  got  into  the  mind, 
the  suggestion  of  health  is  undoubtedly  a  powerful  antidote 
to  disease.  Since  the  mind  under  an  overwhelming 
belief  or  emotion  may  strike  right  through  the  body  as 
though  it  were  a  physical  force,  whitening  the  hair, 
raising  blisters,  causing  blood  to  exude  through  the  skin 
at  particular  points,  there  is  no  limit  we  may  set  to  what  it 
may  do  in  resisting  disease  or  even  in  killing  its  germs. 
No  doubt  excessive  claims  have  been  made,  especially  by 
faith  healers  and  quacks,  for  the  curative  power  of  the 
mind  in  disease,  but  that  it  is  a  vital  factor  in  the  matter 
is  emphasized  by  medical  authorities  and  is  receiving 
increased  attention  in  all  quarters. 

This  power  of  the  mind  over  the  body  is  the  root  of  all 
the  various  forms  of  mind  healing  and  is  the  secret  and 
stock  in  trade  of  numerous  quacks  that  play  on  the 
credulity  of  people.  Dr.  Schofield  enumerates  eight 
kinds  of  mental  healing  as  follows : 


1.  There  is  the  prayer  and  faith  cure  at  Lourdes;  wnich  is  based 
upon  the  faith  in  God  and  the  Virgin,  perhaps  mostly  on  the  latter. 
2.  Relic  cures  of  all  sorts ;  where  the  basis  is  faith  in  the  holy  emblems, 
seen  or  touched.  3.  Evangelical  faith  cures;  based  upon  external 
divine  power.  4.  Mind  cures;  effected  by  the  realization  of  the 
power  of  mind  over  matter,  or  by  the  conscious  effect  of  the  mind 
of  the  healer  on  the  patient.     5.  Christian  Science  cures;  based  on 


228        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

the  unreality  of  disease,  and  the  direction  of  the  mind  to  the  Divine. 
6.  Spiritualistic  cures;  effected  by  faith  in  departed  spirits.  7. 
Mesmeric  cures;  effected  by  a  supposed  fluid  or  magnetic  influence 
passing  from  healer  to  patient.  8.  Direct  faith  healing;  effected  by 
faith  healers,  in  whom  the  patient  has  confidence  and  who  heal  on 
the  spot.^ 

The  stories  told  of  the  manifold  and  marvelous  cures 
effected  by  this  general  means  are  well  known,  and  many 
are  the  healers  and  healing  resorts  that  can  show  a  re- 
markable collection  of  crutches  and  other  paraphernalia 
that  have  been  left  behind  by  those  who  were  healed. 
John  Alexander  Dowie,  once  prominent  as  a  faith  healer 
in  Chicago,  had  a  large  hall  of  which  the  walls  were  lined 
with  such  mementos  and  proofs  of  his  healing  power. 
That  many  of  these  cures  are  genuine  is  an  undoubted 
fact,  admitted  by  medical  authorities  themselves.  The 
fact  that  many  of  them  are  also  spurious  does  not  touch 
the  reality  of  the  genuine  ones. 

Physicians,  it  need  not  be  said,  understand  this  principle 
of  healing  and  use  it  in  their  practice.  The  faith  they 
inspire  in  their  patients  by  their  medicines  and  perhaps 
even  more  by  their  personality  and  reputation  is  a  vital 
factor  in  their  healing  power.  Many  a  physician  by  his 
contagious  optimism  begets  a  like  spirit  in  his  patient 
that  has  its  effect  in  quickening  the  vital  energies  of  the 
whole  body.  It  is  also  well  known  that  physicians  give 
medicines,  such  as  **bread  pills,*'  which  they  know  will 
have  no  other  virtue  than  the  power  of  arousing  the 
faith  and  hope  of  the  patient. 

It  makes  no  difference  what  is  the  nature  of  the  means 
by  which  such  faith  is  excited,  if  it  produces  the  faith  it 
will  do  the  work.     On  this  account  the  fetish  of  the  savage 

1  The  Force  of  Mind,  p.  202. 


MIND  HEALING  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CURES  229 

and  all  the  absurd  arts  and  means  of  faith  healers  are 
effective.  The  following  example  is  from  George  Barton 
Cutten's  * 'Psychological  Phenomena  of  Christianity*': 

Let  me  refer  to  a  monthly  publication  called  Unity.  The  copy 
which  I  have  in  hand  is  that  for  February,  1906.  One  of  the  leaves 
of  this  publication  is  of  red  paper,  and  in  addition  to  elaborate  in- 
structions for  its  use  given  by  the  editor,  the  sheet  has  printed  on 
it  the  following:  "This  sheet  has  been  treated  by  the  Society  of 
Silent  Unity,  after  the  manner  mentioned  in  Acts  19:  11,  12.  Dis- 
ease will  depart  from  those  who  repeat  silently,  while  holding  this  in 
hand,  the  words  printed  thereon."  In  addition  to  these  instructions 
we  find  these  words:  "Affirmation  for  Strength  and  Power.  February 
20th  to  March  20th.  (Held  Daily  at  12  M.)  The  Strength  and 
Power  of  Divine  Mind  are  now  established  in  the  Midst  of  Me;  and 
shall  go  no  more  out.  Affirmation  for  Prosperity.  (Held  Daily  at 
12  M.)  The  Riches  of  the  Lord-Christ  are  poured  out  upon  Me, 
and  I  am  supplied  with  every  good  Thing."  Near  the  end  of  the 
publication  are  some  testimonials  to  the  value  of  such  suggestions. 
I  choose  three  of  them.  "While  holding  the  Red  Leaf  between  my 
hands  it  caused  vibrations  through  my  whole  system,  and  rheumatic 
pains  that  I  was  troubled  with  disappeared  as  if  by  magic — M. 
T.  R."  "Your  Red  Sheet  of  November,  I  used  in  treatment  of  my 
sister  for  appendicitis,  and  also  for  myself  for  sore  throat.  With 
the  December  one  I  treated  myself  for  sore  throat  and  bronchitis, 
with  wonderful  results  in  both  and  in  all  cases. — L.  V.  D."  "Your 
treatments  for  prosperity  have  done  us  so  much  good,  and  we  are 
feeling  more  prosperous,  which  will  open  the  way  to  our  receiving 
more.  Since  our  treatments  our  chickens  have  laid  better,  the  food 
goes  further,  and  our  whole  living  seems  easier. — A.  M.  L."  It  is 
to  be  expected  that  so  long  as  the  chickens  and  people  respond  so 
readily  to  the  most  naive  and  crass  forms  of  suggestion,  there  will 
always  be  found  those  willing  to  give  the  suggestions  consideration.^ 

It  will  be  recalled  that  Mrs.  Eddy  says  in  * 'Science  and 
Health"  that  persons  have  been  healed  while  reading 
this  book.  "The  perusal  of  the  author's  publications 
heals  sickness  constantly."  The  thing  is  credible;  the 
sheet  does  not  always  need  to  be  red. 

While  the  power  of  the  mind  over  the  body  in  the 
healing  of  disease  is  freely  admitted  and  used  by  medical 

1  Pp.  220,221. 


230        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

authorities,  yet  they  restrict  it  within  more  or  less  definite 
Umits.  The  distinction  between  functional  and  organic 
diseases,  while  more  popular  than  scientific,  yet  is  of 
practical  use,  and  it  is  within  the  former  field  that  mind 
healing  does  its  best  if  not  its  only  work.  "Potent  as  is 
the  influence  of  mind  on  body,"  says  Sir  William  Osier, 
"and  many  as  are  the  miracle-like  cures  which  may  be 
worked,  all  are  in  functional  disorders,  and  we  know  only 
too  well  that  nowadays  the  prayer  of  faith  neither  sets  a 
broken  thigh  or  checks  an  epidemic  of  typhoid  fever. "i 
Dr.  Schofield  says  that  "with  the  exception  of  mental  and 
functional  nerve  diseases,  the  part  the  mental  factor  plays 
is  exceedingly  small,  and  often  very  obscure  and  ill  de- 
fined," though  "it  may  be  a  predisposing  cause,  and 
exciting  cause,  an  aggravating  or  a  modifying  accompani- 
ment; it  may  act  as  a  poison,  or  therapeutically  as  a 
medicine. "2  When  alleged  cases  of  the  healing  of  organic 
diseases  by  mental  means  are  investigated,  they  are 
nearly  always  if  not  invariably  found  to  be  not  based  on 
fact;  either  the  diagnosis  was  not  correct  or  the  cure  was 
not  effected.^ 

Among  functional  diseases  also  the  failures  to  cure  by 
mental  means  far  outnumber  the  successful  cases.  As 
usual  in  such  matters,  the  "hits"  are  remembered  and 
exploited  and  the  "misses"  are  forgotten.  John  Alexander 
Dowie  in  his  newspaper,  "Leaves  of  Healing,"  declared, 
"I  pray  and  lay  my  hands  on  seventy  thousand  people  in 
a  year,"  yet  in  the  two  and  a  half  years  immediately 

1  Quoted  by  B.  B.  Warfield  in  Counterfeit  Miracle^,  p.  229. 

2  The  Force  of  Mind,  p.  69. 

3  The  story  of  a  typical  celebrated  case  of  this  kind,  involving  the 
immediate  healing  of  a  broken  bone,  is  told  by  Dr.  J.  M.  Buckley 
in  his  Faith  Healing,  pp.  54,  55. 


MIND  HEALING  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CURES  231 

preceding  the  date  of  this  statement  he  reports  only- 
seven  hundred  cures,  which  is  only  one  success  in  every 
two  hundred  and  fifty  trials. ^  Such  meager  results 
would  ruin  the  reputation  of  any  regular  physician. 

2.  HAVE  MIRACULOUS  CURES  CEASED? 

At  this  point  we  are  confronted  with  the  question.  Have 
the  miraculous  cures  of  the  Bible,  especially  of  Jesus, 
ceased?  Christian  Scientists  and  many  other  faith  healers 
give  an  emphatic  negative  to  this  question,  and  declare 
that  they  are  doing  just  what  Jesus  did  and  commanded 
his  disciples  to  do.  Mrs.  Eddy  is  especially  bold  in 
flinging  this  challenge  in  the  face  of  her  opponents  and 
she  frequently  quotes  and  appeals  to  the  promise:  "And 
these  signs  shall  accompany  them  that  believe;  in  my 
name  shall  they  cast  out  demons;  they  shall  speak  with 
new  tongues;  they  shall  take  up  serpents,  and  if  they 
drink  any  deadly  thing,  it  shall  in  no  wise  hurt  them;  they 
shall  lay  hands  on  the  sick,  and  they  shall  recover.'* 
But  unfortunately  for  this  contention  this  passage  is 
found  in  the  spurious  appendix  to  the  Gospel  of  Mark 
and,  being  no  part  of  the  canonical  gospel,  cannot  be 
quoted  in  support  of  this  doctrine. 

Several  other  passages  are  adduced  in  behalf  of  this 
claim.  "And  he  cast  out  the  spirits  with  a  word,  and 
healed  all  that  were  sick:  that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which 
was  spoken  through  Isaiah  the  prophet,  saying,  Himself 
took  our  infirmities,  and  bare  our  diseases**  (Matt. 
8:16,  17).  This  passage  refers  only  to  the  healing  works 
of  Jesus  and  contains  no  promise  that  the  same  power 
would  be   extended   to   his   disciples   through   the   ages. 

1  B.  B.  Warfield,  in  Counterfeit  Miracles,  p.  196. 


232       THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

The  same  principle  applies  to  the  power  of  healing  com- 
mitted by  Jesus  to  the  Twelve  (Luke  9:1)  and  to  the 
Seventy  (Luke  10:9)  as  he  was  commissioning  them  and 
sending  them  forth:  they  were  given  such  power  as  his 
oflScial  apostles  and  not  to  all  believers  through  all  time. 
*'Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  He  that  believeth  on  me, 
the  works  that  I  do  shall  he  do  also;  and  greater  works 
than  these  shall  he  do;  because  I  go  unto  the  Father'* 
(John  14:12,  13).  The  context  shows  that  Jesus  was 
specially  speaking  at  this  time  of  his  spiritual  works  in 
manifesting  the  Father,  and  no  one  thinks  that  he  meant 
to  extend  to  every  believer  miraculous  power  to  still 
stormy  seas  and  raise  the  dead.  "These  'greater  works' 
were  the  spiritual  effects  accomplished  by  the  disciples, 
especially  the  great  novel  fact  of  conversion"  (The 
Expositor's  Greek  Testament).  "Is  any  among  you 
sick?  let  him  call  for  the  elders  of  the  church;  and  let 
them  pray  over  him,  anointing  him  with  oil  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord:  and  the  prayer  of  faith  shall  save  him  that  is 
sick,  and  the  Lord  shall  raise  him  up"  (James  5:14,  15). 
In  this  passage  the  use  of  the  medical  means  employed  in 
that  day  is  commanded,  and  this  makes  it  an  unfortunate 
Scripture  to  be  appealed  to  by  those  who  reject  the  use 
of  such  means.  No  passage  can  be  quoted  that  shows 
that  strictly  miraculous  powers  were  to  be  extended 
beyond  Jesus  and  his  apostles  who  used  them  as  signs  of 
divine  authority.  The  use  of  medical  means  is  sanctioned 
all  the  way  through  the  Scriptures.  The  Bible  is  a 
common-sense  book  that  builds  on  the  broad  base  of 
universal  natural  law  and  human  experience,  and  it 
cannot  be  enlisted  in  the  service  of  irrational  ways  of 
dealing  with  disease,  or  with  anything  else. 


MIND  HEALING  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CURES  233 

Christians  of  almost  all  schools  believe  in  prayer  for 
the  sick  and  that  God  can  and  does  answer  such  prayer 
in  accordance  with  his  wisdom,  but  they  also  believe 
that  he  works  through  means,  including  medical  skill. 
God  is  in  all  the  processes  of  nature  and  of  human  art, 
and  no  one  is  more  ready  to  acknowledge  this  than  the 
Christian  physician.  *'In  the  healing  of  every  disease  of 
whatever  kind,"  says  Dr.  Henry  H.  Goddard,  "we  cannot 
be  too  deeply  impressed  with  the  Lord's  part  of  the 
work.  He  is  the  Operator.  We  are  the  cooperators. 
More  and  more  am  I  impressed  that  every  patient  of 
mine  who  has  ever  risen  up  from  his  sick  bed  on  to  his 
feet  again  has  done  so  by  the  divine  power.  Not  I,  but 
the  Lord,  has  cured  him."  But  such  divine  part  in  healing, 
however  supernatural  it  may  be,  is  not  to  be  confused  with 
a  miracle  in  the  Scripture  sense  of  a  sign  wrought  to 
certify  the  deity  of  our  Lord  and  the  authority  of  his 
apostles.  1 

3.  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CURES 

Christian  Science  is  one  form  of  mind  cure.  Mrs. 
Eddy  was  anxious  to  make  the  impression  that  her 
system  had  no  connection  or  affinity  with  the  various 
forms  of  faith  healing.  **They  regard  the  human  mind 
as  a  healing  agent,"  she  says  in  the  Preface  to  "Science 
and  Health,"  "whereas  this  mind  is  not  a  factor  in  the 
Principle  of  Christian  Science."  Her  theory  is  that  dis- 
ease and  matter  and  all  forms  of  "mortal  mind"  are 

1  This  subject  is  fully  discussed  in  Benjamin  B.  Warfield's  Counter- 
feit Miracles.  He  quotes  with  approval  a  writer  in  the  Edinburgh 
Review;  "In  point  of  interpretation,  the  history  of  Protestantism  is 
a  uniform  disclaimer  of  any  promise  in  the  Scriptures  that  miraculous 
powers  should  be  continued  in  the  Church." 


234        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

"nothingness,"  and  that  the  understanding  of  truth 
destroys  these  delusions.  She  distinguishes  between 
mind-cure  and  Mind-cure,  capitaHzed  Mind  in  her 
vocabulary  being  the  infinite  Mind  which  is  the  "allness'* 
that  includes  all  things,  the  knowledge  of  which  leaves 
no  room  for  the  "nothingness"  of  matter  and  disease. 
Nevertheless,  there  is  no  escaping  the  fact  that  her 
system  is  a  form  of  mind  cure,  for  she  urges  the  patient 
to  "deny"  disease  and  all  the  delusions  of  "mortal  mind," 
and  thereby  adopts  and  uses  the  fundamental  principle 
of  all  forms  of  mental  healing.  The  only  difference 
between  her  system  and  other  systems  and  the  distinctive 
feature  of  her  theory  is  the  bad  and  absurd  philosophy 
that  she  adopted  as  the  cause  and  explanation  of  her 
method  of  healing;  but  this  false  philosophy  has  little  or 
no  necessary  connection  with  the  concrete  working  of 
her  method. 

Chapter  XVIII  in  "Science  and  Health,"  entitled 
"Fruitage,"  consists  of  eighty-four  letters  giving  accounts 
of  alleged  cases  of  healing  by  Christian  Science,  which 
are  presented  in  illustration  and  proof  of  the  system.  It 
is  open  to  anyone  to  inspect  these  cases  and  endeavor 
to  form  some  judgment  of  them.  Each  one  has  a  heading 
giving  the  name  of  the  disease  that  has  been  cured  and 
is  signed  with  the  initials  and  address  of  the  writer  al- 
though the  addresses  are  useless  for  purposes  of  investi- 
gation when  only  the  initials  of  the  writers'  names  are 
given.  The  list  looks  impressive  as  one  glances  through 
it  and  notes  that  every  case  is  reported  as  cured  and  that 
almost  every  kind  of  disease  is  found  in  it.  In  the  head- 
ings there  appear  such  announcements  as  "Rheumatism 
Healed,"  "xistigmatism  and  Hernia  Healed,"  "Substance 


MIND  HEALING  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CURES  235 

of  Lungs  Restored,"  "Fibroid  Tumor  Healed  in  a  Few 
Days,"  *Tnsanity  and  Epilepsy  Healed,"  "A  Case  of 
Mental  Surgery,"  these  being  the  titles  of  the  first  six 
letters. 

The  writer  does  not  doubt  that  many  of  these  persons 
were  healed,  or  that  they  got  well  of  whatever  ailments 
they  had.  The  cures  of  Christian  Science  are  as  numerous 
and  real  as  those  of  other  forms  of  mental  healing,  and 
no  one  disputes  this  fact.  We  also  admit  that  these 
writers  were  sincere  and  honest  in  the  accounts  they 
gave  of  their  diseases  and  their  cures  as  they  under- 
stood them.  But  the  real  question  is  whether  these 
accounts  are  correct,  and  not  whether  their  authors 
thought  they  were  so. 

On  closer  examination  of  the  letters  our  suspicion 
is  aroused  when  we  note  that  no  instance  of  failure  is 
included  in  these  eighty -four  cases.  What  does  this  mean  ? 
Does  it  mean  that  there  are  no  failures  whatever  with 
Christian  Science  healers,  or  that  these  cases  were  win- 
nowed out  of  a  larger  number  from  which  the  failures 
were  omitted?  Or  does  it  mean  that  only  those  who  think 
they  are  healed  write  such  testimonies,  and  others  that 
failed  to  receive  such  healing  are  not  heard  from?  Our 
doubts  as  to  the  trustworthiness  of  these  testimonies  are 
further  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  without  exception 
they  were  written  by  nonmedical  persons  who  had  no 
technical  knowledge  of  the  diseases  and  symptoms  and 
cures  which  they  undertake  to  describe.  Not  one  of 
them  is  written  by  a  physician,  or  is  accompanied  with 
the  certificate  of  a  physician.  Space  here  permits  only 
several  typical  extracts  from  them,  as  they  are  usually  long 
and  contain  much  irrelevant  matter. 


236        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

One  correspondent  writes:  *'For  seventeen  years  I 
had  suffered  with  indigestion  and  gastritis  in  the  worst 
form,  often  being  overcome  from  a  seeming  pressure 
against  the  heart.  I  had  asthma  for  four  years,  also  had 
worn  glasses  for  four  years.  It  seemed  to  me  that  I  had 
swallowed  every  known  medicine  to  relieve  my  indigestion, 
but  they  only  gave  temporary  benefit.  I  purchased  a 
copy  of  *Science  and  Health,'  and  simply  from  the  reading 
of  that  grand  book  was  completely  healed  of  all  physical 
ailments  in  two  weeks'  time."  Another  writes:  **I 
pursued  the  study  [of  Christian  Science]  carefully  and 
thoroughly,  and  I  have  had  abundant  reason  since  to  be 
glad  that  I  did,  for  through  this  study,  and  the  resulting 
understanding  of  my  relation  to  God,  I  was  healed  of  a 
disease  with  which  I  had  been  afflicted  since  childhood 
and  for  which  there  was  no  known  remedy."  And  another 
writes:  "Through  reading  *Science  and  Health'  and  the 
illumination  which  followed,  I  was  healed  of  ulceration 
of  the  stomach  and  kindred  troubles,  a  restless  sense  of 
existence,  agnosticism,  etc." 

Now  when  one  considers  how  difficult  it  often  is  to 
diagnose  disease  and  how  often  even  experienced  physi- 
cians make  mistakes  in  this  part  of  their  art  and  how  easy 
it  is  for  one  suffering  with  any  bodily  disturbance  to 
imagine  that  he  has  almost  any  disease,  the  value  of  these 
testimonies  as  to  diseases  cured  becomes  very  small. 
Even  when  some  of  these  persons  say  that  one  or  more 
physicians  told  them  they  had  these  diseases  and  "gave 
them  up,"  such  testimony,  without  necessarily  being 
dishonest,  is  untrustworthy,  because  it  is  easy  to  misunder- 
stand or  misreport  these  physicians  and  we  would  like 
to  know  what  they  really  did  say.     In  very  many  instances 


MIND  HEALING  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CURES  237 

such  alleged  reports  of  physicians  have  been  run  down 
and  have  been  proved  to  be  incorrect. 

Over  against  these  testimonies  of  Christian  Scientists 
who  claim  they  were  healed  of  almost  all  ailments,  in- 
cluding organic  diseases  and  surgical  cases,  we  can  put 
the  proved  facts  as  to  many  notable  cases  that  were  total 
failures  and  the  testimony  of  eminent  medical  authorities. 
As  to  notorious  cases  of  failure  and  disaster  and  death, 
they  have  been  recorded  in  such  numbers  and  with  such 
proofs  as  must  stagger  the  faith  of  even  the  most  devoted 
and  credulous  Christian  Scientists.! 

It  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  dropped 
out  of  her  therapeutics  surgery,  obstetrics,  and  infectious 
diseases.  "Until  the  advancing  age  admits  the  efficacy 
and  supremacy  of  Mind,  it  is  better  for  Christian  Scientists 
to  leave  surgery  and  the  adjustment  of  broken  bones 
and  dislocations  to  the  fingers  of  a  surgeon,  while  the 
mental  healer  confines  himself  chiefly  to  mental  recon- 
struction and  to  the  prevention  of  inflammation."  "Ob- 
stetrics is  not  Science,  and  will  not  be  taught."  "Mrs. 
Eddy  advises,  until  the  public  thought  becomes  better 
acquainted  with  Christian  Science,  that  Christian  Sci- 
entists decline  to  doctor  infectious  or  contagious  diseases. "2 
She  further  wrote:  "Christian  Scientists  should  be  in- 
fluenced by  their  own  judgment  in  taking  a  case  of 
malignant  disease,  they  should  consider  well  their  ability 
to  cope  with  the  case — and  not  overlook  the  fact  that 
there  are  those  lying  in  wait  to  catch  them  in  their  sayings; 

1  For  such  cases  see  Milmine's  History,  pp.  324-326,  354-356; 
Peabody's  Masquerade,  pp.  103-120;  The  New  Church  Review,  1908> 
vol.  XV,  p.  419;  Paget's  Faith  and  Works  of  Christian  Science,  pp. 
130-190. 

2  The  Christian  Science  Journal,  December,  1902. 


238        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

neither  should  they  forget  that  in  their  practice,  whether 
successful  or  not,  they  are  not  specially  protected  by  law." 
It  was  because  the  hand  of  the  law  was  laid  on  Christian 
Science  practitioners  that  these  admonitions  and  limi- 
tations were  imposed  upon  them ;  and  they  were  embodied 
in  a  by-law  that  *'if  a  member  of  this  church  has  a  patient 
that  he  does  not  heal,  and  whose  case  he  cannot  lawfully 
diagnose,  he  may  consult  with  an  M.  D.  on  the  anatomy 
involved."  These  three  classes  of  cases  from  which  the 
practitioners  of  this  faith  are  warned  away,  surgery, 
obstetrics,  and  infectious  and  contagious  diseases,  cut 
a  wide  swath  through  the  field  of  the  disease  healing  art 
and  are  a  tremendous  limitation  upon  the  power  and  the 
claims  of  Christian  Science.  In  the  presence  of  these 
admitted  limitations,  what  becomes  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  claim 
that  "Christian  Science  is  always  the  most  skillful  sur- 
geon," and  her  boast  in  the  Preface  of  "Science  and 
Health,"  that  "thousands  of  well-authenticated  cases  of 
healing"  "have  proved  the  worth  of  her  teachings," 
"cases"  which  "for  the  most  part  have  been  abandoned 
as  hopeless  by  regular  medical  attendants".^  A  "regular 
medical  attendant"  who  was  a  general  practitioner  and 
would  not  touch  a  case  of  surgery,  obstetrics,  or  infectious 
or  contagious  disease  would  be  a  curiosity  in  his  profes- 
sion and  would  not  have  much  to  do. 

Time  and  again  Mrs.  Eddy  and  other  Christian  Scien- 
tists have  been  challenged  to  submit  cases  of  their  healing 
to  medical  inspection,  but  no  such  challenge  has  been 
accepted.  Luther  T.  Townsend,  professor  of  theology 
in  Boston  University,  submitted  this  proposition  to  Mrs. 
Eddy:  "If  you  or  the  president  of  your  college,  or  your 
entire  college  of  doctors,  will  put  into  place  a  real  case  of 


MIND  HEALING  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CURES   239 

hip  or  ankle  dislocation,  without  resorting  to  the  ordinary 
manipulation  or  without  touching  it,  I  will  give  you  one 
thousand  dollars.  Or  if  you  or  your  president,  or  your 
entire  college,  will  give  sight  to  one  of  the  inmates  of  the 
South  Boston  Asylum  for  the  Blind,  that  sightless  person 
having  been  born  blind,  I  will  give  you  two  thousand 
dollars."  The  following  reply  to  this  appeared  in  the 
Christian  Science  Journal:  *'Will  the  gentleman  accept 
my  thanks  due  to  his  generosity,  for  if  I  should  accept 
his  bid  he  would  lose  his  money.  Why,  because  I  per- 
formed more  difficult  tasks  fifteen  years  ago.  At  present 
I  am  in  another  department  of  Christian  work,  where 
*there  shall  no  sign  be  given  them,'  for  they  shall  be  in- 
structed in  the  principles  of  Christian  Science  that  fur- 
nishes its  own  proof." 

Richard  C.  Cabot,  M.  D.,  professor  in  the  Harvard 
Medical  School,  in  McClure's  Magazine  for  August,  1908, 
had  an  article  entitled  *'One  Hundred  Christian  Science 
Cures."  The  cases  he  examined  were  gathered  out  of 
The  Christian  Science  Journal,  and  he  gives  evidence  to 
prove  that  the  accounts  of  the  cases  had  been  "doctored" 
by  the  editor  of  the  Journal  or  by  some  other  Christian 
Science  authority,  and  the  same  editing  is  evident  in 
many  of  the  cases  reported  by  Christian  Science  officials, 
including  those  in  the  chapter  on  * 'Fruitage"  in  * 'Science 
and  Health."  Of  these  one  hundred  cases  Dr.  Cabot 
found  that  seventy-two  were  "functional,"  seven  were 
"cases  of  what  appears  to  be  organic,"  eleven  were  "cases 
very  difficult  to  class,"  and  ten  were  "cases  regarding 
which  no  reasonable  conjecture  can  be  made."  His 
conclusions  with  respect  to  them  were,  "first,  that  most 
Christian  Science  cures  are  probably  genuine;  but,  sec- 


240        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

ondly,  they  are  not  cures  of  organic  disease.'*  "I  have  never 
found,'*  he  says,  *'one  in  which  there  was  any  good  evidence 
that  cancer,  consumption,  or  any  other  organic  disease 
had  been  arrested  or  banished."  He  had  ''followed  up" 
many  alleged  cures  of  such  diseases,  but  "the  diagnosis 
was  never  based  upon  any  proper  evidence."  He  further 
says:  "Of  the  classical  methods  of  psychotherapeutics, 
namely,  explanation,  education,  psychoanalysis,  en- 
couragement, suggestion,  rest-cure  and  work-cure,  the 
Christian  Scientists  use  chiefly  suggestion,  education,  and 
work-cure,  though  each  of  these  methods  is  colored  and 
shaped  by  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  the  sect.** 

One  of  the  most  extensive,  thoroughgoing,  authoritative, 
and  convincing  investigations  of  the  cures  of  Christian 
Science  was  made  by  Stephen  Paget,  M.  D.,  an  eminent 
English  medical  authority,  and  the  results  were  published 
in  his  book  entitled  "The  Faith  and  Works  of  Christian 
Science,**  1909.  He  took  "two  hundred  consecutive 
Testimonies  of  Healing,  from  her  weekly  journal,  the 
Christian  Science  Sentinel,*'  and  published  them  in  his 
book,  filling  twenty-nine  pages.  He  adds  footnotes  to 
some  of  the  cases,  pointing  out  their  ambiguities  and  telling 
us  that  he  wrote  to  some  of  the  patients  and  in  no  instance 
did  he  receive  a  satisfactory  answer.  He  then  passes 
judgment  on  these  two  hundred  cases,  but  space  here 
permits  only  a  few  of  his  statements: 

The  vast  majority  of  these  testimonies  are  not  worth  the  paper 
on  which  they  are  printed.  .  .  These  are  not  testimonies,  but 
testimonials;  every  advertisement  of  a  new  quack  medicine  publishes 
the  like  of  them.  .  .  What  is  the  good  of  proclaiming  that  Christian 
Science  heals  diseases  which  get  well  of  themselves?  Time  heals 
them.  Here  is  a  girl  with  a  cold  in  her  head:  she  is  healed  "tlirough 
the  realization  of  the  omnipresence  of  Love."  Was  there  ever  such 
an  insult  offered  to  the  name  of  Love?  .   .   .  Let  us  apply  a  fair  and 


MIND  HEALING  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CURES  241 

mild  test  to  these  two  hundred  cases.  Let  us  show  them  to  any 
doctor;  and  let  us  ask  him  what  he  thinks  of  them.  He  will  laugh  at 
them:  he  will  say,  "What  is  the  good  of  such  cases?  Why  don't 
they  report  them  properly?  Why  don't  they  give  details?  What 
do  they  mean  by  spinal  trouble,  and  all  the  other  troubles?" 

Dr.  Paget  gives  an  account  of  the  alleged  cure  of  a 
case  of  leprosy;  he  wrote  to  the  patient  and  he  shows 
that  there  is  no  good  ground  for  believing  that  he  ever 
had  this  disease.  He  gives  the  experience  of  and  quotes 
from  a  number  of  eminent  medical  authorities,  including 
Dr.  John  B.  Huber,  Professor  in  Fordham  University 
Medical  School,  New  York,  William  A.  Purrington,  Uni- 
versity Lecturer  on  Medical  Jurisprudence,  New  York, 
Henry  H.  Goddard,  Lecturer  on  Psychology  of  Mental 
Defectives,  New  York  University,  Dr.  Albert  Moll,  of 
Berlin,  and  Dr.  R.  C.  Cabot,  of  Boston.  The  followmg 
is  a  quotation  from  Mr.  Purrington: 


In  the  record  of  deaths  resulting  from  the  treatment  of  Christian 
Scientists,  Faith  Curers,  Peculiar  People,  et  id  genus  omne,  a  large 
proportion  are  those  of  neglected  children  suffering  from  acute  in- 
flammation of  the  lungs,  diphtheria,  pneumonia,  and  like  complaints. 
One  horrible  and  typical  case  in  Brooklyn  was  brought  to  public 
notice  by  an  undertaker  called  in  by  a  Faith  Curer  to  bury  the 
latter's  child,  six  years  of  age,  dead  from  diphtheria.  Two  other 
children,  one  about  eight,  the  other  less  than  two  years  old,  were 
found  suffering  from  the  same  disease.  The  father  explained  his 
failure  to  call  in  medical  aid  by  saying  he  did  not  believe  in  doctors, 
since  he  believed  in  Christ.^ 

Dr.  Paget  gives  a  quotation  from  Dr.  J.  M.  Buckley*s 
"very  careful  paper  in  the  North  American  Review, 
July,  1901,"  which  is  as  follows: 

1  For  the  legal  case  against  Christian  Science,  see  Mr.  Purrington's 
book  Christian  Science;  An  Exposition. 


242        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

The  failures  of  Christian  Science  are  innumerable.  Twenty  years 
ago  I  collected  vital  statistics  of  various  communistic  institutions 
which  refuse  medical  aid,  and  compared  them  with  the  tables  of  life 
insurance  companies;  and  on  the  basis  of  the  results  of  the  corn- 
parison,  I  predicted  that,  should  Christian  Science  at  any  time  begin 
to  spread  rapidly,  or  should  antimedicine,  faith-healing  institutions 
be  largely  increased,  the  number  of  deaths  would  attract  attention, 
and  public  indignation  be  excited  by  failures  to  heal  maladies  which 
ordinarily  yield  to  medical  or  surgical  treatment.  This  prediction 
is  now  being  fulfilled  every  day.  Many  who  have  been  vainly 
treated  by  Christian  Scientists  are  now  dead.  None  of  their 
failures  is  mentioned  by  the  healers,  and  few  of  the  Jiving  victims, 
who  are  usually  silenced  by  shame.  One  I  met  in  an  insane  asylum, 
muttering  all  day  long,  "God  can  never  be  sick." 

Dr.  Paget  collected  and  printed  in  his  book  sixty-eight 
cases  of  alleged  cures  by  Christian  Scientists  which  were 
shown  to  be  unfounded  and  worse  by  physicians  who 
sent  them  to  Dr.  Paget  for  the  book.  He  says  of  these 
cases:  "They  display  (1)  the  great  liking  which  Christian 
Science  has  for  the  very  worst  sort  of  *surgical  cases'; 
(2)  the  cruelty  or  brutality  which  naturally  goes  with  her 
terror  of  pain  and  of  death;  (3)  the  element  of  madness 
which  is  in  her  faith;  (4)  the  vanity  or  self-conceit  which 
approves  and  adopts  a  bastard  philosophy,  not  merely 
for  its  own  sake,  but  for  the  sake  of  opposition  to  au- 
thority." The  twenty-eight  pages  filled  with  these  cases 
are  verily  terrible  reading  and  give  one  a  sense  of  the 
appalling  suffering  and  brutality  and  death  that  result 
from  this  system.  There  is  space  for  only  two  reports 
which  come  from  American  physicians.  The  first  one  is 
as  follows: 

I  am  sending  you  the  following  two  cases  where  the  patients  were 
treated  by  Christian  Science,  and  were  worse,  and  died  after  the 
treatment;  and  the  third  case,  one  of  "miraculous  conception." 
The  first  was  a  man  in  middle  life,  who  had  a  mild  attack  of  nephritis, 
and  was  told  by  a  Christian  Science  healer  to  eat  and  drink  as  he 


MIND  HEALING  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CURES  243 

pleased,  and  to  go  ahead  with  his  business,  for  "he  only  thought  he 
was  sick."  He  soon  developed  uraemic  convulsions,  and  died.  The 
second  was  a  man  with  a  small  epithelioma  of  tongue,  who  was  told 
by  a  Christian  Scientist  that  it  didn't  amount  to  anything,  and 
that  their  treatment  would  soon  make  it  disappear.  He  died  of  its 
ravages  while  receiving  treatment  from  them.  The  third  case 
which  came  to  my  knowledge,  was  one  of  conception,  and  the  delivery 
of  a  child  at  term,  in  a  Christian  Scientist,  who  declared  she  con- 
ceived by  thought,  as  taught  in  their  creed,  and  that  no  man  entered 
into  the  case. 

The  other  case  is  from  a  Boston  physician  and  is  as 
follows: 

Boston  is  a  hotbed  of  Christian  Science,  and  we  see  a  great  many 
patients  who  are  treated  by  those  who  practice  it.  I  have  seen  a 
patient  dying  of  strangulated  hernia,  who  had  been  treated  from 
first  to  last  by  Christian  Science  until  the  period  of  operability  had 
passed.  I  have  seen  one  or  two  patients  dying  of  hemorrhage  who 
had  been  treated  by  Christian  Science.  I  should  say  I  had  seen 
about  a  hundred  cases,  in  which  the  only  chance  for  cure  had  been 
lost  through  Christian  Science  treatment. 

Dr.  Paget  sums  up  his  investigations  of  this  system 
thus: 

These  short  notes,  put  here  as  I  got  them,  give  but  a  faint  sense 
of  the  ill  working  of  Christian  Science.  It  would  be  easy  to  collect 
hundreds  more.  Of  course,  to  see  the  full  iniquity  of  these  cases, 
the  reader  should  be  a  doctor.  But  everybody,  doctor  or  not,  can 
feel  the  cruelty,  born  of  fear  of  pain,  in  some  of  these  Scientists — 
the  downright  madness  threatening  not  a  few  of  them,  and  the 
appalling  self-will.  They  bully  dying  women,  and  let  babies  die  in 
pain;  let  cases  of  paralysis  tumble  about  and  hurt  themselves;  rob 
the  epileptic  of  their  bromide,  the  syphilitic  of  their  iodide,  the 
angina  cases  of  their  amy]  nitrite,  the  heart  cases  of  their  digitalis; 
let  appendicitis  go  on  to  septic  peritonitis,  gastric  ulcer  to  perforation 
of  the  stomach,  nephritis  to  uraemic  convulsions,  and  strangulated 
hernia  to  the  miserere  met  of  gangrene;  watch,  day  after  day,  while 
a  man  or  a  woman  bleeds  to  death;  compel  them  who  should  be 
kept  still  to  take  exercise;  and  withhold  from  all  cases  of  cancer  all 
hope  of  cure.  To  these  works  of  the  Devil  they  bring  their  one  gift, 
willful  and  complete  ignorance;  and  their  "nursing"  would  be  a 
farce,  if  it  were  not  a  tragedy.     Such  is  the  way  of  Christian  Science, 


244       THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

face  to  face,  as  she  loves  to  be,  with  bad  cases  of  organic  disease.  .  . 
In  a  rage.  Common-sense  cries,  "For  God's  sake  leave  the  children 
alone.  It  doesn't  matter  with  grown-up  people;  they  can  believe 
what  they  like  about  Good  and  Evil,  and  germs,  and  things.  But 
the  children;  they  take  their  children  to  these  services.  Why  can't 
they  leave  the  children  out  of  it?"  .  .  .  The  corner  stone  of  her 
church  is  not  Jesus  Christ  but  her  own  vanity.  She  is  cruel  to 
babies  and  young  children;  she  is  worse  than  close-fisted  over  her 
money;  she  despises  Christianity,  and  is  at  open  war  with  experience 
and  common  sense.  .  .  We  examine  her  testimonials,  and  find  them 
worthless.  We  are  told  that  she  is  Christ  come  again,  and  we  can 
see  that  she  is  not.  We  listen  to  her  philosophical  talk,  and  observe 
that  she  is  illiterate,  and  ignorant  of  the  rudiments  of  logic.  We 
admit,  and  are  glad,  that  she  has  enabled  thousands  of  nervous 
persons  to  leave  off  worrying,  and  has  cured  many  "functional 
disorders;"  but  she  has  done  that,  not  by  revelation,  but  by  sug- 
gestion. The  healed,  whom  she  incessantly  advertises,  are  but  few, 
compared  with  them  that  are  whole,  .  .  and  a  thousand  brave  and 
quiet  lives,  the  unnamed  legion  of  good  non-Scientists.  They  bear, 
not  deny,  pain;  they  confess,  not  confuse,  the  reality  of  sin;  they 
face,  not  outface,  death. 

The  author  could  add  from  personal  knowledge  cases  of 
thefailureof  Christian  Science  treatment,  especially  one  sad 
case  ending  in  death,  but  it  is  better  to  rest  the  matter  on 
the  authoritative  judgment  of  medical  men;  and  such 
adverse  judgments  could  be  multiplied  indefinitely. 

"By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them."  By  this  prag- 
matic test  the  "fruitage"  of  Christian  Science  in  all  cases 
of  surgery  and  organic  disease  and  in  many  other  cases  is 
proved  false  and  injurious,  and  sometimes  it  needlessly 
and  cruelly  insures  death.  It  already  has  to  carry  a 
load  of  infamy  that  should  condemn  it  beyond  recovery 
of  any  public  confidence  and  respect.  The  law  has  laid 
its  hand  on  it  and  restricted  it  in  some  degree,  but  it  is 
still  a  dangerous  delusion.  That  an  illiterate  woman, 
utterly  ignorant  of  the  most  elementary  scientific  knowl- 
edge of  the  human  body  and  its  treatment  in  disease, 
should  have  been  able  to  overthrow,  for  many  people. 


MIND  HEALING  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CURES  245 

the  first  principles  of  medical  science,  which  is  the  growth 
of  centuries,  and  get  them  to  trust  and  practice  this 
false  and  disastrous  theory,  is  one  of  the  marvels  of  our 
day,  almost  shaking  our  faith  in  human  rationality;  but 
it  is  partially  explained  by  the  fact  that  in  no  other 
field  are  people  more  easily  deluded  and  led  astray  by 
impostors  and  quacks  than  in  medicine.  In  their  eager 
desire  for  cure  and  health  they  will  wildly  catch  at  any 
straw  floating  on  the  stream  in  which  they  are  struggling. 
All  this  is  said  while  acknowledging  that  Christian 
Science  as  a  system  of  mind  cure  does  succeed  in  giving 
relief  in  many  cases  of  a  functional  kind.  People  of  a 
nervous  temperament  with  all  kinds  of  functional  de- 
rangement gravitate  to  it  by  an  affinity  that  is  not  wholly 
mistaken,  and  by  the  change  wrought  in  their  minds  do 
experience  temporary  relief  and  often  permanent  benefit. 
Let  full  credit  be  given  to  it  for  such  work,  which  it 
accomplishes  in  common  with  and  by  the  same  general 
means  as  other  forms  of  mind  healing.  But  when  it  sets 
itself  up  as  a  system  of  curing  all  disease  and  makes 
claims  of  such  "fruitage"  as  is  given  us  in  *'Science  and 
Health"  and  is  constantly  being  published  in  the  Christian 
Science  Journal,  it  is  a  delusion  and  menace  whose  falsity 
and  evil  works  must  be  exposed. 

4.  THE  MERCENARY  ASPECT  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Mrs.  Eddy  early  developed  a  keen  instinct  for  money 
and  turned  her  religion  and  church  into  a  business  concern 
which  in  thorough  organization  and  masterly  management 
and  in  extraordinary  success  and  huge  profits  rivaled  some 
of  our  great  corporations.  She  is  the  only  founder  of  a 
religion   known   to  history  who   deliberately   set  about 


246       THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

making  money  from  her  cult.  She  was  a  prophet  out  for 
profit.  Jesus  in  sending  out  his  twelve  disciples  said 
unto  them:  "And  as  ye  go,  preach,  saying.  The  kingdom 
of  heaven  is  at  hand.  Heal  the  sick,  raise  the  dead, 
cleanse  the  lepers,  cast  out  demons:  freely  ye  received, 
freely  give.  Get  you  no  gold,  nor  silver,  nor  brass  in 
your  purses;  no  wallet  for  your  journey,  neither  two 
coats,  nor  shoes,  nor  staff :  for  the  laborer  is  worthy  of  his 
food"  (Matt.  10:7-10).  They  were  to  charge  no  price 
for  their  healing  and  to  take  nothing  for  the  grace  of 
God.  But  Mrs.  Eddy  charged  for  everything  and  took 
all  she  could  get,  "supposing  that  godliness  is  a  way  of 
gain"  (I  Tim.  6:5).  When  Simon  the  sorcerer  wanted  to 
buy  of  Peter  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit  that  he  might 
make  money  out  of  it,  the  apostle  pronounced  a  grave 
judgment  upon  him,  declaring  that  he  was  still  "in  the 
gall  of  bitterness  and  in  the  bond  of  iniquity"  (Acts 
8:18-24);  but  Mrs.  Eddy  stood  in  no  fear  of  any  such 
retribution.  Isaiah  cried  out,  "Ho,  every  one  that 
thirsteth,  come  ye  to  the  waters,  and  he  that  hath  no 
money;  come  ye,  buy,  and  eat;  yea,  come,  buy  wine  and 
milk  without  money  and  without  price"  (ch.  55  :l);  but 
Christian  Science  healing  comes  high,  and  whoever 
would  receive  it  must  come  liberally  supplied  with  money. 
The  freeness  of  the  grace  of  God  is  proclaimed  all  the  way 
through  the  Scriptures  and  is  one  of  its  glories,  but  who- 
ever would  partake  of  the  promised  blessing  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
gospel  must  pay  for  it  and  pay  well.  After  struggling 
through  years  of  bitter  poverty  in  which  at  times  she  ate 
the  bread  of  charity,  this  remarkable  woman,  who  at 
fifty  years  of  age  was  unknown  and  was  literally  a  home- 
less wanderer,  suddenly  began  to  wield  a  golden  scepter 


MIND  HEALING  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CURES  247 

and  turned  out  to  be  a  veritable  wizard  of  finance.  She 
rapidly  rose  to  affluence  and  died  a  millionaire,  several 
times  over. 

As  usual  with  her,  she  based  her  money-making  scheme 
on  an  alleged  divine  revelation,  which  she  announced  in 
the  following  terms: 


When  God  impelled  me  to  set  a  price  on  Christian  Science  mind 
healing,  I  could  think  of  no  financial  equivalent  for  the  impartation 
of  a  knowledge  of  that  divine  power  which  heals;  but  I  was  led  to 
name  three  hundred  dollars  as  the  price  for  each  pupil  in  one  course 
of  lessons  at  my  college;  a  startling  sum  for  tuition  lasting  barely 
three  weeks.  This  amount  greatly  troubled  me.  I  shrank  from 
asking  it,  but  was  finally  led  by  a  strange  Providence  to  accept 
this  fee.  God  has  since  shown  me  in  multitudinous  ways  the 
wisdom  of  this  decision.^ 


It  is  really  pathetic  to  observe  the  shrinking  modesty 
with  which  she  recoiled  from  the  idea  of  fixing  a  price  of 
three  hundred  dollars  for  twelve  lessons  running  through 
only  three  weeks,  and  the  extreme  difficulty  with  which 
she  brought  herself  to  consent  to  it,  though  she  was 
acting  under  a  divine  compulsion  and  was  led  by  a  strange 
Providence  to  do  it;  yet  she  confesses,  somewhat  incon- 
sistently, that  she  could  not  think  of  any  price  that  would 
be  a  financial  equivalent  for  the  knowledge  she  imparted 
of  divine  healing.  Yet  after  all  this  hesitation  as  though 
it  went  hard  with  her  conscience  to  charge  such  *'a  startling 
sum"  for  only  twelve  lessons,  she  presently  reduced  the 
number  of  lessons  from  twelve  to  seven  without  reducing 
the  price  of  the  course,  thereby  increasing  the  price  from 
the  * 'startling  sum"  of  twenty-five  to  the  still  more 
* 'startling  sum"  of  forty-three  dollars  a  lesson.     In  ex- 

^  Retrospection  and  Introspection. 


248        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

planatlon  of  this  she  pubHshed  the  following  notice  in  the 
Christian  Science  Journal  for  December,  1888: 

Having  reached  a  place  in  teaching  where  my  students  in  Christian 
Science  are  taught  more  during  seven  lessons  in  the  primary  class 
than  they  were  formerly  in  twelve,  and  taught  all  that  is  profitable 
at  one  time,  hereafter  the  primary  class  will  include  seven  lessons 
only.  As  this  number  of  lessons  is  of  more  value  than  twice  this 
number  in  times  past,  no  change  is  made  in  the  price  of  tuition,  three 
hundred  dollars.     Mary  Baker  Eddy. 

When  she  began  teaching,  however,  she  had  a  different 
scale  of  prices  as  set  forth  in  the  following  contract: 

We,  the  undersigned,  do  hereby  agree,  in  consideration  of  in- 
structions and  manuscripts  received  from  Mrs.  Mary  B.  Glover,  to 
pay  her  $100  in  advance,  and  ten  per  cent  annually  on  the  income 
that  we  receive  from  practicing  or  teaching  the  same.  We  also  do 
hereby  agree  to  pay  said  Mary  B.  Glover  $1000  in  case  we  do  not 
practice  or  teach  the  science  she  has  taught  us.i 

Under  this  contract  she  not  only  got  her  fee  for  teaching 
her  * 'science,"  but  also  reaped  a  royalty  from  the  fees  of 
her  students.  She  was  thus  sowing  seed  from  which  she 
could  reap  a  perpetual  harvest,  and  her  fine  financial 
hand  was  in  evidence  in  this  arrangement.  She  also 
bound  her  students  to  pay  her  a  large  sum  whether  they 
did  or  did  not  practice  or  teach  her  science.  Whatever 
was  done  or  not  done  she  had  everything  to  gain  and 
nothing  to  lose. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  "Metaphysical  College,"  which  was  in 
no  proper  sense  a  "college"  at  all  but  was  really  a  bogus 
institution  of  the  rankest  quackery,  was  a  strictly  family 
affair,  for  its  whole  "faculty"  consisted  of  Mrs.  Eddy, 

1  Peabody,  Masquerade,  p.  123. 


MIND  HEALING  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CURES  249 

her  third  husband,  Asa  Gilbert  Eddy,  and  her  adopted 
son,  J.  Foster  Eddy,  so  that  its  entire  proceeds  practically 
flowed  into  her  coffers.  Mrs.  Eddy  says  that  * 'during 
seven  years  some  four  thousand  students  were  taught  by 
me  in  this  college."  Four  thousand  students  at  three 
hundred  dollars  apiece  would  yield  one  million  two  hundred 
thousand  dollars!  One  would  think  that  a  family  of  three 
with  an  annual  income  of  one  hundred  and  seventy  thou- 
sand dollars  could  lay  by  something  for  a  rainy  day,  and 
Mrs.  Eddy  did.  She  took  some  charity  students  so  that 
some  reduction  would  need  to  be  made,  but  there  never 
was  very  much  charity  in  her  transactions.  It  went 
hard  with  a  student  that  did  not  pay  the  tuition,  for  a 
lawsuit  was  frequently  brought  to  compel  payment, 
which  suits  she  lost  in  every  instance,  the  judge  in  one 
case  deciding  that  she  had  not  rendered  any  useful  service 
for  the  fee.l 

Mrs.  Eddy  struck  a  still  richer  vein  of  ore  in  her  book 
"Science  and  Health,"  of  which,  after  the  earlier  editions, 
she  herself  was  the  publisher.  This  book  was  sold  for 
three  dollars  in  the  cheapest  binding  and  on  up  to  six 
dollars  for  more  expensive  bindings.  Mr.  Peabody  thinks 
the  book  could  be  manufactured  in  those  days  in  large 
quantities  for  fifty  cents  a  copy,  yielding  a  five  hundred 
per  cent  profit  on  the  cheapest  edition;  and  Mark  Twain, 
who  was  himself  a  publisher  with  an  unfortunate  ex- 
perience in  the  business  says:  *T  am  obliged  to  doubt  that 
the  three-dollar  *Science  and  Health'  costs  Mrs.  Eddy 
above  fifteen  cents,  or  that  the  six-dollar  copy  costs  her 

1  Mr.  F.  W.  Peabody,  of  the  Boston  bar,  says  that  he  has  examined 
the  court  record  in  two  of  these  cases.  See  his  Masquerade,  pp.  123. 
124. 


250        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

above  eighty  cents.  I  feel  quite  sure  that  the  average 
profit  to  her  on  these  books,  above  cost  of  manufacture,  is 
all  of  seven  hundred  per  cent."  Our  respect  for  Mrs. 
Eddy's  financial  ability  is  rising.  She  made  money  where 
Mark  Twain  lost  it! 

How  many  copies  did  she  sell?  The  book,  we  have 
seen,  passed  through  nearly  ^ve  hundred  editions  before 
the  publisher  stopped  numbering  them.  We  are  not  told 
how  many  copies  were  published  in  each  edition,  but  the 
total  must  have  mounted  up  into  hundreds  of  thousands. 
Where  did  Mrs.  Eddy  find  a  market  for  such  an  enormous 
output  of  a  religious  book?  In  her  students  and  in  the 
membership  of  her  church,  every  one  of  whom  was  ex- 
pected and  induced  by  notices  and  commands  whose 
meaning  could  not  be  evaded  to  purchase  a  copy  of  this 
"textbook"  of  the  faith  that  was  of  equal  rank  and  au- 
thority with  the  Bible.  In  the  Christian  Science  Journal 
for  March,  1897,  appeared  this  remarkable  notice: 

Christian  Scientists  in  the  United  States  and  Canada  are  hereby- 
enjoined  not  to  teach  a  student  of  Christian  Science  for  one  year, 
commencing  on  March  14,  1897.  "Miscellaneous  Writings"  is  cal- 
culated to  prepare  the  minds  of  all  true  thinkers  to  understand  the 
Christian  Science  textbook  more  correctly  than  a  student  can. 
The  Bible,  "Science  and  Health  with  Key  to  the  Scripture,"  and  my 
other  published  works,  are  the  only  proper  instructors  for  this  hour. 
It  shall  be  the  duty  of  all  Christian  Scientists  to  circulate  and  to 
sell  as  many  of  these  books  as  they  can.  If  a  member  of  The  First 
Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  shall  fail  to  obey  this  injunction,  it  will 
render  him  liable  to  lose  his  membership  in  this  church.  Mary 
Baker  G.  Eddy. 

Can  the  like  of  that  notice  be  found  in  all  the  religious 
literature  of  the  world.  Christian  and  pagan?  This 
prophet  actually  stopped  the  teaching  of  her  faith  for 
one  year  in  order  to  reap  a  larger  profit  from  the  increased 


MIND  HEALING  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CURES   251 

forced  sale  of  her  books  during  this  period!  She  now 
included  her  "other  pubhshed  works"  along  with  her 
textbook  in  this  order  and  required  every  member  of  her 
church  to  circulate  and  sell  as  many  of  these  books  as 
possible,  the  penalty  of  failing  to  do  this  being  excom- 
munication from  the  church!  What  other  prophet  or 
priest  ever  did  such  a  thing  as  this? 

But  we  have  not  reached  the  end  of  this  business,  and 
the  worst  is  yet  to  come.  There  was  a  reason  why  so  many 
editions  of  ^'Science  and  Health"  should  issue  from  the 
press.  We  have  seen  how  the  book  was  always  under- 
going change,  being  in  a  fluid  condition.  These  changes 
were  often  trivial,  but  Christian  Scientists  were  always 
given  to  understand  that  they  should  have  the  latest 
edition!  Does  the  reader  not  see  what  this  meant? 
It  meant  that  every  new  edition  put  all  the  previous 
editions  out  of  date,  and  loyal  Christian  Scientists  had 
to  get  the  latest  edition  of  this  bible  to  have  the  latest 
inspired  word  on  the  subject  of  their  salvation.  A  bible 
that  constantly  needs  revising,  even  though  it  be  inspired, 
at  least  has  the  advantage  of  always  being  able  to  com- 
mand a  large  market  among  the  faithful  for  each  new 
revision. 

An  astonishing  instance  of  how  this  scheme  was  worked 
occurred  when  this  notice  appeared  in  February,  1908: 

Take  Notice:  I  request  Christian  Scientists  universally  to  read  the 
paragraph  beginning  at  line  thirty  of  page  442  in  the  edition  of 
"Science  and  Health,"  which  will  be  issued,  February  29.  I  con- 
sider the  information  there  given  to  be  of  great  importance  at  this 
stage  of  the  workings  of  animal  magnetism,  and  it  will  greatly  aid 
the  students  in  their  individual  experiences.     Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy. 

Mr.  Peabody  tells  us  that  at  the  time  this  appeared 


252       THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Senator  Chandler  happened  to  be  with  him  in  Boston, 
as  they  were  engaged  together  as  counsel  in  the  litigation 
then  pending  in  connection  with  Mrs.  Eddy's  competency 
to  manage  her  affairs.  The  senator  was  anxious  to  see 
this  edition  as  he  "was  particularly  interested  in  keeping 
tabs  on  Mrs.  Eddy's  mental  attitude  toward  so-called 
*animal  magnetism.'"  Mr.  Peabody  went  out  and  ob- 
tained a  copy  of  the  new  edition  and  on  opening  it  at 
the  page  and  line  found  the  * 'information"  that  was  of 
such  "great  importance"  and  "would  greatly  aid  the 
students."  "It  was  just  two  lines,"  says  Mr.  Peabody, 
"inserted  in  a  blank  space  at  the  end  of  a  chapter  and 
necessitated  the  change  of  no  other  plate  of  a  single  page 
in  the  book."  This  is  what  they  saw:  "Christian  Scien- 
tists, be  a  law  to  yourselves,  that  mental  malpractice 
can  harm  you  neither  when  asleep  nor  when  awake." 
Whereupon  Senator  Chandler  exclaimed :  "What  a  swindle! 
Do  you  suppose  anyone  can  be  of  so  little  intelligence, 
who  buys  that  book  in  consequence  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
notice  and  reads  this  paragraph,  that  he  does  not  feel, 
as  we  feel,  that  he  has  been  swindled?"  And  this  is  Mr. 
Peabody 's  comment:  "Only  this  and  nothing  more.  It 
is  senseless,  and  yet  it  cost  many  thousands  of  Christian 
Scientists  from  three  to  six  dollars  apiece  to  find  out, 
if  they  could  find  anything  out,  that  the  Vevelator'  had 
sold  them  'a  gold  brick.'  And  even  since  the  edition  of 
February,  1908,  another  edition,  with  only  one  line  added, 
has  been  foisted  upon  the  faithful."^ 

In   the  words  of  Colonel  Sellers,  with  such  a  book, 
"There's  millions  in  it!" 

In  addition  to  these  main  streams  of  revenue  derived 

^  Masquerade,  pp.  136-138. 


MIND  HEALING  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CURES  253 

from  her  college  and  her  book,  Mrs.  Eddy  drained  off  the 
funds  of  her  followers  in  various  subsidiary  tributary 
streams  that  helped  to  swell  her  flood  of  gold.  She 
appeared  to  be  always  busy  in  finding  means  of  making 
money  and  was  fertile  in  cunning  schemes  and  devices 
to  this  end.  She  took  to  publishing  in  the  Journal  lists 
of  her  Christmas  presents,  giving  the  names  and  addresses 
of  the  donors,  thus  flattering  their  pride  to  find  themselves 
the  recipients  of  such  distinguished  mention  and  honor 
and  suggesting  to  others  that  they  should  do  likewise  and 
shine  with  the  same  glory.  These  lists  grew  with  the 
years  in  length  and  variety  of  gifts,  and  the  *'List  of 
Individual  Offerings"  in  the  Journal  for  1889  mentions 
thirty-seven  articles,  consisting  of  gold-embroidered, 
hand-painted,  eider-down  pillows,  pictures,  perfumery, 
books,  a  barometer,  and  so  on,  concluding  with  **two 
fat  Kentucky  turkeys,"  and  "hosts  of  bouquets  and 
Christmas  cards." 

She  grew  bold  enough  in  time  to  solicit  such  gifts,  and 
four  days  before  Christmas  in  1889  there  appeared  in 
the  Christian  Science  Sentinel  this  *'Card": 

Beloved:  I  ask  this  favor  of  all  Christian  Scientists.  Do  not  give 
me  on,  before,  or  after  the  forthcoming  holidays,  aught  material 
except  three  tea  jackets.  All  may  contribute  to  these.  One  learns 
to  value  material  things  only  as  one  needs  them,  and  the  costliest 
things  are  those  that  one  needs  least.  Among  my  present  needs  ma- 
terial are  these  three  jackets.  Two  of  darkish  heavy  silk,  the  shade 
appropriate  to  white  hair.  The  third  of  heavy  satin,  lighter  shades 
but  sufficiently  sombre.  Nos.  1  and  2  to  be  common-sense  jackets, 
for  Mother  to  work  in,  and  not  overtrimmed  by  any  means.  No.  3 
for  best,  such  as  she  can  aflford  for  her  drawing  room.  Mary  Baker 
Eddy. 

As  this  request  for  three  tea  jackets  with  particular 
directions  as  to  material  and  color  and  style  appeared  on 


254        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

December  21,  Mr.  Peabody  maintains  that  she  very  well 
knew  that  practically  all  presents  intended  for  her  were 
already  mailed,  and  this  was  a  shrewd  device  for  getting 
the  tea  jackets  extra.  Apparently  it  was  not  the  literal 
tea  jackets  she  wanted,  but  the  money  to  buy  them,  as 
she  stated  that  *'A11  may  contribute  to  these.'*  If  "all'* 
really  did  this,  she  must  have  received  no  mean  sum  of 
money  by  this  device.!  Of  course  it  is  amusing  to  find 
Mrs.  Eddy  saying  that  *'One  learns  to  value  material 
things  only  as  one  needs  them,"  but  how  could  she  say 
this  when  her  whole  philosophy  was  that  material  things 
had  no  value  and  were  all  delusions  of  "mortal  mind"  and 
the  very  imps  of  her  devil,  "malicious  animal  mag- 
netism"? The  truth  is  that  she  had  a  very  real  and  keen 
sense  of  the  value  of  such  material  things  as  she  wanted, 
especially  money.  Matter  in  the  form  of  gold  was  one 
demon  of  "mortal  mind"  that  she  never  tried  to  exorcise. 
She  never  claimed  that  money  was  a  "nonentity"  that 
was  to  be  "denied"  as  a  "delusion":  that  would  have 
ruined  her  business. 

Perhaps  the  climax  of  these  catchpenny  devices  or  side 
lines  of  her  trade  was  the  famous  "Christian  Science 
Spoon"  or  "Mother  Spoon"  that  she  foisted  upon  her 
followers.  This  was  an  ordinary  silver  spoon  with  Mrs. 
Eddy's  likeness  embossed  upon  it,  together  with  a 
picture  of  Pleasant  View,  Mrs.  Eddy's  signature,  and  the 
motto,  "Not  Matter  but  Mind  Satisfies."  It  was  sold 
to  the  faithful  for  $5 .  00,  which  would  net  her  a  profit  of 
several  hundred  per  cent.     It  was  introduced  to  them 


1  For  Mr.  Peabody's  full  account  of  this  very  peculiar  request, 
see  his  Masquerade,  pp.  140—143. 


MIND  HEALING  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CURES  255 

with  this  announcement  and  command,  which  appeared 
in  the  Journal  for  February,  1890: 

Christian  Science  Spoons. — On  each  of  these  most  beautiful 
spoons  is  a  motto  in  bas-relief  that  every  person  on  earth  needs  to 
hold  in  thought.  Mother  requests  that  Christian  Scientists  shall 
not  ask  to  be  informed  what  this  motto  is,  but  each  Scientist  shall 
[here  the  request  passes  to  a  commandl  purchase  at  least  one  spoon, 
and  those  who  can  afford  it,  one  dozen  spoons,  that  their  families 
may  read  this  motto  at  every  meal  and  their  guests  be  made  partakers 
of  its  simple  truth.     Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy. 

The  above-named  spoons  are  sold  by  the  Christian  Science 
Souvenir  Company,  Concord,  N.  H.,  and  will  soon  be  on  sale  at  the 
Christian  Science  reading  rooms  throughout  the  country. 

Again  we  wonder  at  the  mercenary  spirit  and  effrontery 
of  this  thing.  Christian  Scientists  must  not  let  their 
curiosity  get  the  better  of  them  so  far  as  to  ask  what 
this  remarkable  motto  is  and  thereby  get  the  information 
free  of  charge  and  deprive  * 'Mother"  of  her  rightful 
profit,  but  each  one  **shair'  buy  his  own  spoon,  and  not 
one  only,  but,  if  he  **can  afford  it,"  at  least  a  dozen,  so 
that  the  whole  family  and  their  guests  may  read  each  one 
for  himself  this  precious  bit  of  inspired  wisdom,  which 
apparently  exhales  its  divine  virtue  only  when  it  is  read 
from  the  silver  spoon  itself.  If  "every  person  on  earth" 
had  hastened  to  buy  this  article  it  would  have  had  a 
market  immensely  beyond  that  of  the  magic  book  and 
there  would  literally  have  been  "millions  in  it."  Did 
Christian  Scientists  swallow  this  spoon?  They  did! 
And  yet  they  affect  surprise  and  are  offended  when  we 
wonder  at  their  gullibility. 

There  were  still  smaller  catchpenny  devices.  "Christian 
Science  emblems,"  Miss  Milmine  tells  us,  "and  Mrs. 
Eddy's  'favorite  flower*  were  made  into  cuff -buttons,  rings, 
brooches,  watches,  and  pendants,  varying  in  price  from 


256        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

$325  to  $2 .  50."  Mrs.  Eddy's  picture  was  also  exploited, 
and  a  copyrighted  photograph  was  introduced  and  recom- 
mended to  her  followers  in  a  notice  which  appeared  in 
the  Journal  for  May,  1899,  and  which  read: 


It  is  with  pleasure  I  certify  that  after  months  of  incessant  toil 
and  at  great  expense  Mr.  Henry  P.  Moore,  and  Mr.  J.  C.  Derby  of 
Concord,  N.  H.,  have  brought  out  a  likeness  of  me  far  superior  to  the 
one  they  offered  for  sale  last  November.  The  portrait  they  have 
now  perfected  I  cordially  endorse.  Also  I  declare  their  sole  right  to 
the  making  and  exclusive  sale  of  the  duplicates  of  said  portrait.  I 
simply  ask  that  those  who  love  me  purchase  this  portrait.  Mary 
Baker  Eddy. 


"This  portrait,"  says  Miss  Milmine,  "is  known  as  the 
'authorized'  photograph  of  Mrs.  Eddy.  It  was  sold  for 
years  as  a  genuine  photograph  of  Mrs  Eddy,  but  it  is 
admitted  now  at  Christian  Science  salesrooms  that  this 
picture  is  a  composite."  Even  her  photograph  was 
faked. 

How  did  Mrs.  Eddy  spend  her  large  income?  Nobody 
outside  of  her  inner  circle  seems  to  know.  She  contri- 
buted to  few  if  any  charities,  and  she  gave  very  little  to 
her  own  church  or  propaganda.  She  always  got  others 
to  furnish  the  money  to  publish  her  book  in  its  early 
editions  and  to  build  her  church,  and  in  general  she  made 
her  enterprises  pay  their  own  way  and  then  yield  her  a 
large  profit.  She  was  not  known  as  being  generous  and 
was  generally  regarded  as  being  parsimonious  and  close- 
fisted.  She  knew  how  to  drive  sharp  bargains  to  get 
money,  and  then  she  knew  how  to  keep  it.  She  gave  her 
son,  George  W.  Eddy,  considerable  help  at  different  times, 
and  when  litigation  was  brought  in  her  last  days  she 
settled  on  him  a  modest  competence.     Shrewd  in  getting 


MIND  HEALING  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  CURES  257 

and  miserly  in  spending,  she  hoarded  her  money  and 
died  leaving  a  large  fortune  estimated  at  over  two  millions 
of  dollars,  which  now  appears  to  be  a  bone  of  contention 
and  a  disrupting  power  in  her  church.  A  lawsuit  was  a 
fitting  part  of  her  legacy,  perpetuating  in  her  death  what 
pursued  her,  or  rather  what  she  pursued,  in  her  life. 

Two  millions  of  dollars  derived  from  teaching  a  religion 
and  selling  a  religious  book  and  various  personal  me- 
mentos! No  small  achievement  that  for  a  woman  who  at 
fifty  years  of  age  was  unknown  outside  of  a  narrow  circle 
in  which  she  was  an  unwelcome  object  of  charity  and  who 
was  burdened  with  infirmities  and  was  a  nervous  wreck. 
Along  with  her  other  peculiar  powers  this  remarkable 
woman  had  a  streak  of  financial  genius.  She  could  turn 
her  esoteric  stock  in  trade  into  gold  with  a  magic  that 
might  well  excite  the  envy  of  many  a  Wall  Street  magnate 
or  great  business  promoter.  But,  somehow,  making 
money  and  founding  a  religion  do  not  seem  to  go  well 
together.  There  is  an  incongruity  here  that  jars  upon  our 
sense  of  the  fitness  of  things.  All  the  great  founders  of 
religion  were  poor  men,  and  the  One  who  was  above  all 
had  not  where  to  lay  his  head.  Mrs.  Eddy  will  not  be 
remembered  for  the  money  she  made,  much  less  for  the 
way  she  made  it,  if  she  is  remembered  at  all. 

The  mercenary  spirit  still  clings  to  Christian  Science. 
The  spirit  of  its  founder  did  not  pass  from  her  church 
when  she  went  out  of  the  world,  for  it  is  bred  in  its  bone 
and  pulses  in  its  blood.  It  is  the  only  religion  we  know 
that  is  deliberately  a  system  of  making  money.  It  has 
its  thousands  of  practitioners  in  its  churches  whose 
business  it  is  to  heal  people  for  pay;  they  are  really  business 
agents  of  this  cult,  financially  interested  in  promoting  it. 


258        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

and  in  a  large  degree  it  is  this  money-making  spirit  and 
side  of  Christian  Science  that  keeps  it  afloat  and  alive; 
its  ''science'*  would  soon  sink  it.  We  do  not  mean  to 
imply  that  these  practitioners  are  conscious  quacks  who 
are  simply  playing  on  the  credulity  of  people  and  are  in 
the  business  merely  for  the  money  that  is  in  it.  We 
doubt  not  that  Christian  Science  believers  and  prac- 
titioners are  sincere  and  conscientious  as  a  class.  But 
none  the  less  they  have  no  proper  medical  knowledge  and 
skill,  and  when  they  venture  outside  of  certain  nervous 
ailments  and  offer  general  treatment  to  the  sick,  they  are 
dangerous  quacks  and  a  menace  to  any  community. 
And  they  know  how  to  charge,  too,  according  to  general 
belief  and  experience.  The  author  gained  personal  insight 
into  their  methods  in  an  instance  in  which  one  of  them 
fastened  herself  on  a  family  of  means  and  bled  them  of  a 
large  sum  of  money,  which  they  paid  to  get  rid  of  her. 
Wealthy  patients  pay  dearly  for  their  treatment.  It  is 
not  to  be  believed  that  a  system  of  "science  and  health" 
that  is  based  on  such  ignorance  and  animated  by  such  a 
mercenary  spirit  can  last. 


CHAPTER  X 
THE  APPEAL  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

There  are  reasons  for  the  rise  and  rapid  spread  of 
Christian  Science.  No  movement  is  grounded  in  pure 
irrationaHty,  and  every  religion  can  give  some  show  of 
reason  for  its  faith.  We  shall  briefly  indicate  some  of  the 
reasons  that  have  given  and  still  give  Christian  Science 
its  impetus  and  prestige. 

1.  THE  APPEAL  OF  HEALTH 

Health  is  the  primary  basis  of  human  activity  and 
happiness,  and  all  the  world  is  in  search  of  it.  Disease  in 
myriad  forms  sows  the  very  air  with  its  seeds  and  impairs 
the  vitality  and  strength  of  such  multitudes  and  so 
burdens  them  with  weakness  and  suffering  that  the  quest 
for  some  means  of  relief  and  cure  is  eager  and  intense 
and  often  pathetic  and  distressing.  The  victims  of  ill 
health  and  disease,  especially  those  that  have  tried  many 
means  and  systems  of  cure  only  to  be  repeatedly  and 
bitterly  disappointed,  grow  desperate  and  are  willing  to 
try  any  remedy  that  promises  relief,  however  it  may  be 
branded  in  official  medical  circles  as  a  quack  nostrum. 
Disease  in  general  and  particularly  functional  disorders 
and  depressing  nervous  ailments  are  the  congenial  soil  in 
which  all  forms  of  mind  cures  and  all  kinds  of  quackery 
find  rich  nourishment  and  grow  rank. 

Christian  Science  promises  this  cure  in  a  quick  and  easy 

259 


THE  TRUtH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

way,  and  hence  its  great  attraction  to  those  in  ill  health 
and  its  special  affinity  for  those  of  a  nervous  temperament. 
That  it  does  afford  genuine  relief  and  even  permanent  cure 
in  many  such  cases  has  been  fully  admitted  in  this  study; 
and  its  work  is  so  far  good  and  is  the  principal  attraction 
and  reason  why  so  many  have  accepted  it  and  are  profuse 
in  its  praise. 

As  was  to  be  expected  and  could  have  been  predicted, 
it  flourishes  most  prolifically  in  regions  where  nervous 
disorders  prevail  as  the  consequence  of  climate  and  as 
the  concomitants  of  social  conditions  of  wealth  and  luxury 
and  the  high  tension  of  city  life.  This  has  been  pointed 
out  and  strikingly  illustrated  by  Woodbridge  Riley,  Pro- 
fessor of  Philosophy  in  Vassar  College,  in  his  work  on 
* 'American  Thought  from  Puritanism  to  Pragmatism." 
The  author  here  quotes  one  or  two  paragraphs  as  follows : 

For  an  explanation  [of  the  spread  of  Christian  Science]  we  must 
have  recourse  to  the  comparison  of  statistics  of  the  sect  with  con- 
ditions in  various  parts  of  the  country.  The  statistics  are  to  be 
found  in  the  last  federal  census;  the  conditions  are  suggested  by  an 
interesting,  but  as  yet  unpublished  map  designating  the  absolute 
number  of  Christian  Scientists  in  the  land.  A  first  glance  at  the 
map  shoAvs  this  threefold  distribution  of  the  sect:  the  East,  the 
Middle  West,  the  Far  West.  By  States  this  means  Massachusetts 
and  New  York;  Illinois  and  Missouri;  Colorado  and  California. 
This  confirms  the  official  statement  that  the  influence  is  strong  over 
comparatively  limited  areas  in  the  United  States.  In  this  threefold 
distribution  the  pathological  factor  is  primarily  in  evidence,  for  the 
centers  of  influence  are  large  cities,  with  their  concomitant  nervous 
disorders,  and  the  health  resorts  of  the  mountains  and  the  coast, 
where  it  is  natural  that  groups  of  invalids  and  semi-invalids  should 
welcome  any  new  therapeutic  agency.  .  .  Christian  Science  has 
spread  largely  along  the  fortieth  degree  of  latitude — the  richest  pay 
streak  of  our  civilization.  From  their  personal  appearance  and 
from  the  showiness  of  their  churches,  the  followers  of  the  "scientific 
mental  therapeutics"  are  manifestly  prosperous.  Yet  with  this 
very  physical  prosperity  there  goes  a  spiritual  change.  As  in  the 
case  of  those  primitive  Christian  Scientists,  the  followers  of  Plotinus 
Avho  centered  in  the  rich  cities  of  Alexandria  and  Rome,  so  these 


THE  APPEAL  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  261 

modern  Neo-Platonists  tend  to  revolt  against  overprosperity.  With 
a  plethora  of  wealth  they  incline  to  asceticism,  and  long  for  a  breath 
of  the  upper  air  of  mysticism.  In  a  word,  too  much  of  the  material 
has  brought  a  desire  for  the  immaterial. ^ 

This  distribution  of  Christian  Science  is  borne  out  by 
the  fact  that  while  the  Christian  churches  have  only 
forty  per  cent  of  their  membership  in  cities  of  25,000 
and  over,  the  Christian  Science  churches  have  over 
eighty-two  per  cent  of  their  membership  in  such  cities  and 
are  only  exceeded  by  the  Jews  who  have  eighty-eight 
per  cent  in  cities.  Another  fact  bearing  on  the  same 
point  is  that  while  the  average  female  membership  in 
all  denominations  is  fifty-seven  per  cent,  in  Christian 
Science  churches  it  rises  to  over  seventy-two  per  cent, 
the  highest  of  all  the  churches. 

The  list  of  churches  published  in  the  Christian  Science 
Journal  for  December,  1919,  also  shows  that  these  churches 
are  congested  along  the  fortieth  degree  of  latitude.  The 
churches  in  Massachusetts  fill  two  and  one-half  columns, 
in  Illinois  four,  and  in  California  nearly  six  columns, 
being  more  numerous  in  the  latter  State,  especially  in 
the  southern  part  of  it,  than  in  any  other  on  account  of 
the  attraction  of  its  climate  to  invalids  and  retired  people 
of  wealth.  But  when  we  pass  north  and  south  of  this 
line  these  churches  thin  out.  Minnesota  has  one  column, 
Kentucky  has  one  half  and  Louisiana  only  one  sixth  of 
a  column.  Christian  Science  has  also  made  little  headway 
in  Canada,  the  whole  country  having  less  than  two 
columns. 

This  church  feeds  on  ill  health,  which  of  course  is  not 
to  its  discredit.     The  promise  of  relief  is  its  chief  allure- 

^  Pages  44,  45. 


262       THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

ment,  and  in  so  far  as  it  fulfills  the  hopes  it  creates  it 
is  to  be  commended.  But  it  has  been  shown  that  its 
results  fall  far  short  of  its  promises,  and  that  it  puts 
forth  claims  that  are  false  and  offers  remedies  that  are 
dangerous  and  sometimes  disastrous.  It  publishes  and 
exploits  its  real  or  imaginary  successes  but  hides  its 
failures,  and  its  victims  do  not  care  to  make  public  their 
experience  and  retire  into  silence. 

2.  THE  APPEAL  OF  COMFORT 

A  second  appeal  of  Christian  Science  is  its  promise  of 
comfort.  People  that  live  in  conditions  of  primitive 
civilization  where  life  is  a  battle  with  nature  and  hardship, 
danger  and  daring,  are  far  less  sensitive  to  discomfort 
and  pain  than  those  that  are  cradled  and  nursed  in  the 
multiplying  artificial  conveniences  and  luxuries  of  our 
upholstered  modern  world.  Savages  seem  to  be  almost 
insensible  to  pain,  whereas  highly  cultured,  daintily 
coddled  souls  may  be  impatient  of  the  slightest  irritation 
and  annoyance.     Most  of  us  bear  pain  badly. 

Christian  Science  is  characterized  by  this  unwillingness 
to  suffer  pain.  Mrs.  Eddy  could  not  stand  any  discom- 
fort and  generally  had  to  have  any  number  of  people 
waiting  on  her.  Her  father  nursed  her  in  his  arms  after 
she  was  grown;  a  special  cradle  was  made  for  her  and  her 
second  husband  rocked  her  as  though  she  were  a  baby, 
taking  the  cradle  along  with  her  at  their  marriage;  the 
people  that  took  her  into  their  homes  in  her  wander 
years  had  to  pamper  her,  and  in  her  later  years  her  faithful 
ones  had  to  protect  her  from  every  annoyance,  flatter 
her  inordinate  vanity,  minister  to  her  fastidious  tem- 
perament and  tastes  and  gratify  her  every  whim.     This 


THE  APPEAL  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  263 

spirit  in  no  small  degree  passed  into  Christian  Science 
and  in  some  measure  characterizes  it  to  this  day.  Its 
constant  aim  and  effort  is  to  avoid  and  *'deny"  any  discom- 
fort and  to  swathe  the  soul,  the  *'body"  having  been 
"denied,"  in  the  softness  of  undisturbed  serenity.  It  has 
an  aversion  to  all  the  ills  of  life,  disease  and  poverty 
and  sacrifice,  because  these  things  are  unpleasant.  There 
is  no  heroism  in  its  ideas  and  aims,  little  of  the  soldier 
spirit  of  accepting  the  trials  and  hardships  of  life  in  the 
pursuit  of  high  ideals,  no  adventuring  upon  the  sea  of 
duty  though  it  be  swept  by  storms,  no  noble  enthusiasm 
that  triumphs  over  perils  and  pains  and  glories  in  them  as 
Paul  did;  there  is  no  cross  to  its  crown,  none  of  the  sub- 
lime heroism  of  Jesus,  "who  for  the  joy  that  was  set  before 
him  endured  the  cross,  despising  shame." 

Christian  Science  may  promise  and  does  give  a  kind  of 
comfort,  but  it  is  an  ignoble  kind.  It  finds  its  own  comfort 
by  forgetting  the  discomfort  of  others.  It  is  largely 
oblivious  of  the  sufferings  of  the  world  because  it  does 
not  believe  in  the  reality  of  any  suffering  and  thinks 
that  such  delusion  is  a  personal  fault.  It  has  no  social 
gospel  and  no  form  of  social  service.  It  is  terribly  signifi- 
cant and  a  damning  indictment  of  Christian  Science 
that  it  has  no  hospitals  and  general  philanthropies  be- 
cause it  does  not  believe  in  them.  It  seems  monstrous 
that  in  our  modern  world  with  its  ever-increasing  note  of 
altruism  a  set  of  people  should  wrap  themselves  in  comfort 
and  nurse  their  own  souls  in  ease  and  deaden  their  ears 
and  hush  their  very  houses  of  worship  to  all  the  cries  of 
poverty!  and  social  distress  in  the  world.     Having  denied 

^  "Poverty  is  a  belief  of  material  lack  or  material  limitation." 
T.  W.  Wilby,  What  Is  Christian  Science?  p.  163. 


264        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

the  reality  of  the  material  world,  it  has  retired  into  an 
unreal  and  self-contained  world  of  its  own.  Its  comfort 
is  self-centered  and  selfish. 

Frank  Podmore,  a  not  unsympathathetic  student  of 
Christian  Science,  throws  a  searchlight  into  the  heart 
of  this  aspect  of  the  system  in  the  following  quotation: 

The  religion  of  Christian  Science  oils  the  wheels  of  the  domestic 
machinery,  smooths  out  business  troubles,  releases  fear,  promotes 
happiness.  But  it  is  entirely  egoistic  in  expression.  .  .  For 
Christian  Scientists  there  is  no  recognized  service  of  their  fellows, 
beyond  the  force  of  their  example.  .  .  There  are  no  charities  or 
institutions  of  any  kind  for  social  service  in  connection  with  Christian 
Science  churches.  .  .  Poverty  and  sin,  like  sickness,  are  illusions, 
errors  of  "mortal  mind,"  and  cannot  be  alleviated  by  material 
methods.  If  a  man  is  sick,  he  does  not  need  drugs;  if  poor,  he  has 
no  need  of  money;  if  suffering,  of  material  help  or  even  sympathy. 
For  the  cure  in  all  cases  must  be  sought  within.  The  New  Religion, 
then,  is  without  the  enthusiasm  of  Humanity.  It  is,  in  fact,  M'ithout 
enthusiasm  of  any  kind.  We  shall  look  in  vain  here  for  spiritual 
rapture,  for  ecstatic  contemplation  of  the  divine.  There  is  no  place 
here  for  any  of  the  passions  which  are  associated  with  Christianity, 
nor,  indeed,  for  any  exalted  emotion.  There  can  be  no  remorse 
where  there  is  no  sin;  compassion,  when  the  suffering  is  unreal,  can 
only  be  mischievous;  friendship,  as  we  shall  see  later,  is  a  snare, 
and  the  love  of  man  and  woman  a  hindrance  to  true  spirituality. 
There  is  no  mystery  about  this  final  revelation,  and  there  is  no  room, 
therefore,  for  wonder  and  awe.  Here  are  no  "long-drawn  aisles 
and  fretted  vaults";  the  Scientist's  outlook  on  the  spiritual  world 
is  as  plain  and  bare  as  the  walls  of  his  temple,  shining  white  under 
the  abundant  radiance  of  the  electric  lamps,  i 

Christian  Science  in  its  ethics  is  a  form  of  hedonism. 
Having  * 'denied"  the  body,  it  nevertheless  gives  much  of 
its  time  and  thought  to  this  same  fictitious  body,  soothing 
it  into  comfort  and  keeping  it  in  a  pleasant  condition. 
After  all  their  talk  against  it,  the  followers  of  this  cult 
appear  to  be  more  concerned  with  the  flesh  than  with  the 
spirit.     It  is  a  shallow  gospel  that  goes  little  deeper  than 

1  Mesmerism  and  Christian  Science,  p.  282. 


THE  APPEAL  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  2Q5 

the  very  body  they  affect  to  disown.  Christian  Scientists 
make  much  of  their  cheerfulness,  exploiting  it  as  though 
they  had  got  rid  of  all  worry  and  were  cheerful 
above  other  people,  but  we  know  from  personal  ex- 
perience that  their  cheerfulness  is  sometimes  affected, 
kept  up  as  an  outer  appearance  in  spite  of  their  inner 
state,  proclaiming  themselves  to  be  perfectly  well  and 
comfortable  when  they  are  obviously  in  pain  and  are  ill 
and  weak  to  the  point  of  exhaustion.  So  their  comfort 
is  sometimes  artificial  and  false,  and  at  its  best  it  is  often 
a  smug  self-complacency  which  we  would  think  would 
satiate  and  nauseate  a  healthy  virile  soul.  Such  was  the 
reaction  of  the  man  who,  when  asked  why  he  had  left 
Christian  Science,  declared  that  he  "got  tired  of  being  so 
monotonously  happy.** 

This  shallow  hedonistic  philosophy  will  not  stand  the 
test  of  logic  and  of  experience.  This  world  is  not  a  play- 
ground and  life  is  not  a  picnic.  Comfort  is  not  the  con- 
science of  the  soul.  Happiness  is  not  the  chief  end  of 
man.  While  pleasure  is  a  motive  that  enters  widely  into 
our  aims  and  activities,  yet  it  is  not  the  supreme  ideal  and 
pursuit  that  fundamentally  governs  our  Hves.  Duty  is  a 
star  that  holds  the  human  soul  to  its  course  when  pleasure 
falls  as  a  meteor  out  of  the  sky.  In  fact,  when  we  do 
seek  comfort  as  our  immediate  aim  we  are  likely  to  miss 
it  and  meet  with  disappointment.  No  people  are  so  apt 
to  be  discontented  and  miserable  as  those  who  make  the 
pursuit  of  pleasure  the  chief  business  of  life.  The  way 
to  get  pleasure  is  to  forget  it.  Pleasure  is  the  music 
that  floats  off  the  harp  of  life  when  it  is  kept  in  tune  and 
properly  played,  and  it  is  our  business  to  attend  to  the 
harp  and  let  the  music  come  of  itself;  and  its  music  will 


266       THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

not  all  be  pure  harmony  and  sweet  melody,  it  will  not 
always  soothe  us  with  pleasant  songs,  for  the  harp  of 
life  sometimes  yields  minor  chords  and  is  swept  with 
storms  of  agony. 

God  is  not  simply  nursing  us  in  comfort  in  this  world. 
He  is  not  merely  rocking  babies,  but  making  men.  The 
world  is  made  of  sterner  stuff  and  life  is  confronted  with 
greater  and  graver  issues  than  health  and  comfort. 
Health  is  not  holiness.  Plato  and  Socrates,  Isaiah  and 
Paul,  Luther  and  Lincoln  never  thought  of  comfort,  and 
the  Son  of  God  was  made  perfect  through  suffering  and 
came  to  the  very  culmination  and  climax  of  his  glory  on 
the  cross. 

8.  THE  APPEAL  OF  IDEALISM 

Christian  Science,  as  we  have  seen,  is  a  form  of  idealism. 
It  is  an  ignorant  and  spurious  form,  as  it  declares  that 
matter  is  a  baseless  delusion  which  is  to  be  rooted  out  of 
the  mind,  whereas  philosophical  idealism  does  not  deny 
the  reality  of  matter  but  aflSrms  its  true  nature  and 
existence  as  a  form  and  manifestation  of  mind.  Mrs. 
Eddy  appears  to  have  fallen  into  this  mistake  as  to  the 
nature  of  matter  according  to  idealistic  philosophy  through 
pure  misunderstanding  or  ignorance  of  the  subject.  And 
her  position  on  this  point  was  a  needless  defiance  of 
common  sense,  for  her  system  would  have  worked  better 
without  this  notion,  and  in  fact  it  was  this  initial  absurdity 
that  involved  her  in  most  of  her  contradictions  and 
hopeless  confusions.  A  straight-out  system  of  idealism 
or  of  pantheism  can  be  consistently  carried  through,  but 
her  system,  that  was  based  on  the  nonreality  of  matter 
and  yet  had  to  deal  with  matter  at  every  point,  was 


THE  APPEAL  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  267 

vitiated  by  an  inner  self-contradiction  and  absurdity  that 
was  bound  to  wreck  it. 

But  few  of  the  followers  of  Mrs.  Eddy  know,  any  more 
than  she  did,  what  philosophical  idealism  is  and  that  her 
conception  and  system  of  philosophy  is  ignorant  and 
absurd.  Yet  idealism,  however  false  it  may  be  in  form, 
makes  a  strong  and  fascinating  appeal  to  the  human 
mind.  It  seems  to  discard  the  flesh  and  appeal  to  the 
spirit,  and  this  strikes  a  responsive  chord  in  the  soul  and 
wakes  up  its  noblest  music.  It  is  true  that  Christian 
Science  is  inconsistent  in  that  it  affects  to  deny  and 
despise  the  flesh  and  yet  in  practice  it  is  keen  enough  in 
its  appreciation  and  pursuit  of  the  comforts  and  satis- 
factions of  the  body  and  of  all  material  things,  especially 
money.  But  the  human  mind  has  an  immense  capacity 
for  inconsistency,  whatever  its  philosophical  or  religious 
creed,  though  it  is  evident  that  Christian  Scientists  have 
much  more  than  their  proper  share  of  this  aptitude.  But 
with  all  its  inconsistencies  and  impossibilities.  Christian 
Science  strikes  the  high  note  of  idealism,  and  this  appeals 
to  this  age,  if  only  in  reaction  to  its  materialism.  This  is 
one  of  its  attractions  and  virtues  and  must  be  set  down  to 
its  credit,  though  it  must  also  be  corrected. 

Professor   Riley   has   also   noticed   this   attraction   of 
Christian  Science.     On  this  point  he  says: 


Christian  Science  as  immaterialism  has  had,  as  a  prepared  soil 
the  previous  American  idealism.  If  a  mental  isothermal  line  could 
be  drawn  for  such  a  phenomenon,  it  would  begin  in  Massachusetts, 
stretch  to  that  historic  projection  of  New  England— the  Western 
Reserve — and  continue  on  with  the  latter's  prolongation  into 
Illinois.  This,  it  would  likewise  be  noted,  was  the  path  of  Puritan- 
ism; westward  the  course  of  Calvinism  took  its  way,  and  on  this 
same  path,  seeking  his  audiences  among  those  of  New  England  stock, 


268       THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Emerson  brought  to  the  winners  of  the  West  the  message  that  "the 
spiritual  principle  should  be  suffered  to  demonstrate  itself  to  the 
end."^ 

We  have  already  dug  into  the  subsoil  of  Christian 
Science,  and  have  found  that  the  system  still  carries 
with  it  some  of  the  varied  and  strange  forms  of  idealism 
out  of  which  it  grew. 

4.  THE  APPEAL  OF  LIBERAL  REVOLT 

Christian  Science  has  in  no  small  degree  profited  by 
revolt  against  conventionalized  religion  toward  liberal 
thinking.  Orthodox  religion  is  ever  in  danger  of  crystal- 
Hzing  into  rigid  lifeless  forms,  or  of  going  to  seed  and  drying 
up  into  empty  husks  that  have  little  nourishment  and  repel 
some  minds  so  that  they  revolt  from  it.  We  have 
noted  the  fact  that  nearly  all  Christian  Scientists  have 
come  out  of  the  rnembership  or  out  of  the  training 
of  the  orthodox  churches,  and  in  some  degree  they 
have  been  carried  away  by  this  centrifugal  tendency. 
They  simply  lost  interest  in  the  old  churches  and  were 
ready  to  be  caught  by  some  wind  of  doctrine  that 
promised  a  fresh  breeze  and  breath  of  air.  Mere  novelty 
has  in  it  an  attraction  and  charm  for  superficial  people 
that  have  no  deep  convictions  and  fixed  principles. 

Again  to  quote  Professor  Riley : 

The  new  gospel  of  mental  medicine  is  also  a  system  of  philosophy. 
"Hopelessly  original,"  as  Mrs.  Eddy  calls  it,  the  system  appeals  to 
those  who  are  inclined  to  novelties.  Tired  of  the  dry  doctrines  of 
the  churches,  to  most  beginners  in  speculation,  unacquainted  with 
the  history  of  the  schools.  Christian  Science  has  all  the  air  of  dis- 
covery.    Now  such  persons,  who  have,  at  least,  the  merit  of  thinking 

1  American  Thought  from  Puritanism  to  Pragmatism,  p.  46. 


THE  APPEAL  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  269 

for  themselves,  are  found  chiefly  in  cities,  and  the  acknowledged 
preponderance  of  urban  over  rural  adherents  is  explained  by  a 
third  factor,  that  of  freethinking  or  a  liberal  attitude  toward  the 
unconventional.  In  the  little  town  it  is  notoriously  difficult  to 
break  from  the  dogma  of  the  local  churches;  it  does  not  approve  of 
changes  in  ecclesiastical  caste.  Freethinking  is  therefore  a  potent 
factor  in  the  spread  of  Christian  Science.  The  map  of  distribution 
by  States  discloses  this.  Connecticut  and  New  Jersey,  with  con- 
servative colleges  like  Yale  and  Princeton,  are  far  below  the  average 
of  their  liberal  neighbors.  It  is  not  so  in  Massachusetts,  that 
hotbed  of  heresies;  not  in  Illinois,  with  its  mixture  of  foreign  faiths; 
nor  in  Colorado,  early  home  of  woman  suffrage;  nor  lastly  in  Cali- 
fornia, pervaded  with  esoteric  Buddhism  and  the  doctrine  of  Maya — 
of  the  world  of  sense  as  shadow  of  illusion.! 


Though  Christian  Science  is  a  pretentious  and  fallacious 
system  of  philosophy  that  has  no  standing  or  respect 
in  the  schools,  yet  this  very  aspect  of  it  has  been  an  at- 
traction for  a  certain  type  of  unschooled  and  superficial 
minds.  The  vague  mystic  ideas,  the  strange  doctrines, 
the  claim  and  appearance  of  being  a  new  **revelation," 
the  peculiar  catchwords  and  phrases  of  its  jargon,  and 
especially  the  great  swelling,  sonorous  polysyllables,  even 
such  uncouth  words  as  *'allness"  and  "somethingness," 
and  the  rolling,  reverberating  sentences  have  a  kind  of 
hypnotic  effect,  fascinating  and  attracting  minds  not  given 
to  careful  attention  and  reflective  thought,  as  bright 
electric  lights  attract  swarms  of  summer  flies  and  moths. 
It  is  a  fashionable  thing  in  some  quarters  to  be  philo- 
sophical and  up-to-date  in  ''new  thought'*  and  use  affected 
speech,  and  the  high-flown  language  and  esoteric  parlance 
of  this  cult  have  supplied  some  people  with  "a  long-felt 
want."  This  is  the  kind  of  thing  that  is  liked  by  those 
that  like  this  kind  of  thing. 

1  American  Thought,  p.  45. 


270       THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

6.  THE  APPEAL  OF  RELIGION 

The  strongest  attraction  of  Christian  Science,  next  to 
that  of  health,  is  that  of  rehgion.  Man  is  incorrigibly 
religious  and  his  soul  will  ever  crave  satisfaction  for  this 
deep  need  and  cry;  and  if  it  cannot  find,  or  if  it  turns 
away  from,  the  true  bread  it  will  feed  on  husks.  Christian 
Science  is  a  religion,  and  this  fact  has  given  it  entrance 
into  many  lives.  Its  very  name  is  artfully  contrived  to 
make  a  popular  appeal.  The  word  "Christian"  is  in- 
tended to  declare  that  it  is  a  form  of  Christianity,  and 
it  makes  a  great  show  of  honoring  Christ  and  the  Bible. 
Many  if  not  most  Christian  Scientists  and  the  public 
in  general  suppose  that  it  is  only  another  form  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  as  one  denomination  differs  from  another  in 
some  unessential  if  not  unimportant  variation.  Why, 
then,  are  not  its  followers  Christians,  and  why  not  join  the 
Christian  Science  church  as  well  as  any  other  church  ?  The 
fact  that  it  is  a  pantheistic  religion  that  cuts  up  true  faith 
and  worship  by  the  roots,  that  it  flatly  contradicts  Christ 
and  Scripture  and  boldly  brands  the  Bible  when  it  differs 
from  itself  as  a  *'lie,"i  that  it  perverts  all  Scriptural 
and  Christian  words  to  utterly  different  meanings  and 
uses,  that  it  subverts  the  whole  Christian  system,  is 
either  unknown  or  unrealized  by  Christian  Scientists,  or 
else,  if  they  do  understand  this,  they  accept  the  system 
in  all  its  anti-Christian  teaching  and  spirit. 

The  name  **science"  is  another  attractive  w^ord,  for 
what  can  be  more  trustworthy  and  honorable  and  authori- 
tative in  this  scientific  age  than  *'science"?  The  fact 
that  the  word  "science"  in  this  system,  like  the  word 

^  "It  must  be  a  lie":  Science  and  Health  in  its  comment  on  Gen 
2:7. 


THE  APPEAL  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  271 

"Christian,"  is  used  in  a  peculiar  sense  and  is  only  one 
of  the  characteristic  terms  of  Christian  Science  jargon, 
a  sense  that  is  utterly  contradictory  to  and  subversive 
of  the  whole  system  of  true  science,  is  again  either  un- 
known to  Christain  Scientists  or  else  they  accept  it  in 
its  absurdity. 

Mrs.  Eddy  used  these  two  words,  "Christian"  and 
"science,"  as  floats  to  buoy  up  her  system,  or  as  wings 
to  enable  it  to  fly,  or  as  a  bait  to  conceal  the  true  nature 
of  her  mixture  of  pantheism  and  spurious  idealism  and 
false  science  so  as  to  lure  and  catch  unsuspecting  followers, 
and  in  this  she  was  exceedingly  clever  and  succeeded 
beyond  her  utmost  dreams.  Yet  in  spite  of  all  this 
falsity  and  absurdity  Christian  Science  does  appeal  to 
the  religious  nature  of  the  soul  and  affords  it  some  satis- 
faction. We  do  not  deny  that,  as  in  some  degree  it  does 
restore  people  to  health,  so  in  some  measure  it  does 
satisfy  the  religious  yearning  of  the  heart.  God  can  get 
some  divine  light  to  a  sincere  soul  even  through  the 
dense  dark  medium  of  an  idol,  and  can  get  considerable 
light  through  the  twilight  of  pagan  faiths  into  humble 
souls.  We  do  not  and  dare  not  restrict  his  grace  and 
exclude  it  from  any  form  or  profession  of  worship.  We 
wish  to  Christian  Scientists  all  the  blessing  they  can 
receive  from  their  faith.  But  we  must  judge  it  by  the 
standard  of  truth  and  Scripture,  and  so  judged  we  cannot 
but  believe  that  at  many  points  the  light  that  is  in  it 
is  darkness. 

The  strongest  appeal  in  the  religious  theory  of  Christian 
Science  is  its  doctrine  of  the  "allness"  of  God,  which, 
excluding  its  pantheistic  implications,  in  a  measure 
corresponds  with  the  philosophical  and  Christian  doctrine 


272       THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

of  the  immanence  of  God.  The  orthodox  view  of  God 
has  sometimes  made  the  impression  of  a  distant  absentee 
deity,  remote  from  human  affairs  and  especially  from 
our  personal  needs,  as  he  sits  on  some  far-off  throne  and 
rules  over  the  great  transcendent  laws  and  activities  of 
the  universe.  Such  a  God  is  too  inaccessible  for  us  to 
feel  his  presence,  and  the  very  thought  of  such  a  vague 
and  shadowy  being  may  give  us  a  chill  and  leave  us 
cold.  Mrs.  Eddy  teaches  the  "allness"  of  God,  the  one 
and  only  Being  that  includes  us  all  and  in  whom  we  live; 
and  his  very  presence  excludes  evil  and  fills  us  with  good. 
This  brings  God  near  and  makes  him  warm,  wraps  us 
around  with  his  Spirit  and  makes  him  all  in  all  in  our 
thoughts  and  lives.  There  is  a  great  truth  and  immense 
help  and  attraction  in  this  view  of  God,  and,  next  to  the 
appeal  of  health,  it  is  the  chief  value  and  asset  of  Christian 
Science. 

This  is  simply  the  Scriptural  and  Christian  doctrine 
that  in  God  "we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being," 
which  we  shall  emphasize  later.  Unfortunately,  however, 
Christian  Science  as  usual  perverts  this  truth  into  pan- 
theism that  fuses  man  with  God,  obliterating  all  real 
distinction  between  them,  and  effaces  the  personality 
of  God,  degrading  him  to  "Principle,"  and  then  God, 
in  any  religious  sense  and  value,  is  gone,  and  both  God 
and  man  are  merged  and  lost  in  the  vast  dark  abyss  of 
impersonal  fate.  In  the  world  of  religion  there  is  no 
harder  stone  and  no  more  poisonous  serpent  than  this  view. 

Christian  Science  thus  has  a  fivefold  appeal  and  attrac- 
tion of  health,  comfort,  idealism,  novelty,  and  religion, 
and  these  are  the  grounds  of  its  popularity  and  success. 
We  have  admitted  the  element  of  truth  in  each  of  these. 


THE  APPEAL  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  273 

but  also  shown  how  this  system  has  perverted  them  into 
dangerous  error,  though  it  has  sugar-coated  them  so  as 
to  conceal  their  poison  and  deceive  the  ill-informed  and 
unwary. 

6.  THE  FUTURE  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Prophesying  is  perilous.  Mark  Twain  tried  his  hand 
at  the  business  on  Christian  Science,  and  he  fared  badly. 
Though  he  belabored  Mrs.  Eddy  and  all  her  works  so 
savagely  and  sarcastically,  yet  her  cult  had  a  kind  of 
fascination  for  him  and  he  returned  to  it  again  and  again 
in  writing  the  articles  that  make  up  his  book.  He  was 
under  a  spell  or  obsession  as  to  Christian  Science  and 
thought  it  was  destined  to  become  one  of  the  great  re- 
ligions of  the  world.  Writing  in  1899  he  prophesied  as 
follows : 

It  is  a  reasonably  safe  guess  that  in  America  in  1920  there  will  be 
ten  million  Christian  Scientists,  and  three  millions  in  Great  Britian; 
that  these  figures  will  be  trebled  in  1930;  that  in  America  in  1920 
the  Christian  Scientists  will  be  a  political  force,  in  1930  politically 
formidable,  and  in  1940  the  governing  power  of  the  Republic — to 
remain  that,  permanently.  And  I  think  it  a  reasonable  guess  that 
the  Trust  (which  is  already  in  our  day  pretty  brusque  in  its  ways) 
will  then  be  the  most  insolent  and  unscrupulous  and  tyrannical 
politico-religious  master  that  has  dominated  a  people  since  the 
palmy  days  of  the  Inquisition. ^ 

This  prophecy,  that  seemed  extremely  extravagant 
and  even  open  to  ridicule  when  it  was  made,  has  utterly 
failed.  Instead  of  there  being  thirteen  millions  of  Christian 
Scientists  in  this  year  of  1920,  there  is  probably  not  the 
one-hundredth  part  of  this  number,  and,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  flood  is  apparently  at  or  near  its  high-water  mark 

1  Christian  Science,  p.  72. 


274        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

and  may  be  on  the  point  of  subsiding.  What  Mark 
Twain  says  about  the  Trust  being  autocratic  is  true 
enough,  as  we  have  also  seen,  but  no  one  has  any  fear  of 
its  dominating  the  government  and  mastering  the  world. 
Such  autocracy  contains  within  itself  the  seeds  of  revolt 
and  of  its  own  dissolution,  and  this  process  appears  to 
be  now  going  on. 

A  significant  fact  in  the  history  of  Christian  Science 
is  that  the  system  early  began  to  break  up  into  divisive 
groups  and  sects  and  has  already  been  prolific  in  an  as- 
tonishing number  of  them.  It  is  so  lacking  in  the  co- 
herency and  binding  unity  of  rationality  and  attracts  to 
itself  so  many  peculiar  people  of  aberrant  minds  and 
emotional  temperaments  and  erratic  individuahties,  it 
contains  so  many  seeds  of  internal  disharmony  and  dis- 
solution, that  it  is  sure  to  develop  its  own  dissent  and 
disruption.  The  terrible  tyranny  of  Mrs.  Eddy  served 
to  hold  it  together  against  all  rebellion  in  her  lifetime  and 
still  acts  as  a  suppressive  and  unifying  influence,  but  it 
could  not  wholly  prevent  revolt  and  secession  in  her  day 
and  is  likely  to  grow  less  effective  in  the  future  as  her 
personality  recedes  and  others  come  forward. 

Mr.  Horatio  W.  Dresser,  in  his  recent  "History  of  the 
New  Thought  Movement,"  1919,  gives  an  account  of 
many  of  these  divisive  movements.  Speaking  of  "Science 
and  Health,"  he  writes  as  follows: 


If  we  are  to  see  any  purpose  at  all  in  the  publication  of  that  book, 
we  may  venture  to  say  that  it  had  value  in  arousing  people  out  of 
their  materialism.  The  results  of  the  past  forty  years  apparently 
justify  this  statement,  for  to  those  of  us  who  have  known  former 
Christian  Scientists  as  they  came  one  by  one  out  of  their  radical 
into  more  reasonable  views  it  has  been  plain  that  something  like 
"Science  and  Health"  was  needed  to  set  matters  in  motion.     The 


THE  APPEAL  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  275 

first  reaction  was  against  the  "revelator"  and  the  claims  made  in 
behalf  of  a  supposed  "revelation."  The  second  was  against  the 
theory  contained  in  "Science  and  Health,"  which  had  served  for 
the  time  to  provoke  thought.  Just  as  the  earlier  readers  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  book  took  fundamental  exception  to  it,  so  increasing  numbers 
have  departed  from  her  organization  to  set  up  for  themselves, 
meanwhile  keeping  such  ideas  as  had  proved  of  value.  In  due 
time  the  last  Christian  Scientist  will  probably  take  leave  in  the 
same  way.  In  retrospect  people  will  then  wonder  why  such  a 
reaction  did  not  occur  long  before. i 

The  author  has  already  given  an  account  of  the  schisms 
of  1881  and  of  1888,  and  of  the  secession  of  Mrs.  Wood- 
bury and  of  Mrs.  Stetson. 2  Mrs.  Stetson,  after  her  ex- 
pulsion from  the  Christian  Science  church  by  Mrs.  Eddy 
as  an  increasingly  dangerous  rival,  set  up  an  establish- 
ment in  her  own  home  in  New  York,  where  she  is  still 
carrying  on  a  system  of  mental  healing. 

Out  of  Christian  Science  has  now  come  the  very  thing 
that  Mrs.  Eddy  feared  and  took  every  precaution  and 
desperate  means  to  prevent,  namely,  division  and  rival 
sects.  It  was  to  stop  the  very  possibility  of  this  that  she 
made  her  textbook  *'the  Pastor  over  The  Mother  Church" 
"on  this  planet,'*  without  the  possibility  of  change  until 
the  end  of  time,  and  would  not  allow  her  readers  to  say  a 
word  of  their  own  in  the  church  service,  or  any  officer, 
lecturer,  or  member  to  write  or  speak  on  the  subject  of 
Christian  Science  except  as  such  statements  were  sub- 
mitted to  and  approved  by  her  own  board  in  Boston. 
She  also  tried,  as  we  have  seen,  very  rigidly  to  control  and 
restrict  the  books  she  permitted  her  followers  to  read. 
Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  all  such  precautions  and  re- 
strictions, out  of  the  bosom  of  Christian  Science  have 

1  Pages  127,  128. 

2  Chapter  VIII,  Section  2. 


^76       THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

issued   sect   after   sect   that   are   now   practically   rival 
denominations. 

Among  these  new  forms  and  organizations  of  mental 
healing  are  bodies  that  call  themselves  "Reformed  Chris- 
tian Science,"  which  was  founded  in  1912,  "Divine 
Science,"  and  "Science  of  Being."  But  their  number  and 
names  are  legion,  and  space  would  not  permit  even  a 
catalogue  of  their  names.  These  separated  bodies 
generally  revolt  against  the  absurdities  and  crudities  of 
Mrs.  Eddy,  especially  her  claim  to  divine  inspiration  and 
revelation,  her  theory  of  the  nonreality  of  matter,  her 
pantheism,  and  her  other  ignorant  and  nonsensical  notions. 
Mr.  Dresser  quotes  Mr.  F.  L.  Rawson,  of  London,  "whose 
teaching  is  almost  identical  with  Christian  Science  without 
the  claims  ordinarily  made  in  behalf  of  Mrs.  Eddy,"  as 
saying: 

To-day  there  are  many  millions  of  mental  workers,  containing 
some  fifty  or  sixty  schools.  Only  four  or  five  of  these  work  on  the 
basis  that  Jesus  did,  namely,  by  turning  in  thought  to  God.  The 
remainder  work  in  the  same  way  as  the  sorcerers  and  witches  of  the 
past  and  the  black  magic  workers  and  hypnotists  to-day,  namely, 
with  the  human  mind.  This  means  that  they  use  one  or  other  of 
the  five  different  forms  of  hypnotism,  all  of  which  are  more  or  less 
harmful,  not  only  to  the  patient,  but  to  the  practitioner.  ^ 

Many  of  these  movements  have  been  led  by  individuals 
who  became  possessed  of  and  obsessed  with  some  peculiar 
idea  or  strange  notion  and  founded  a  society  or  started  a 
magazine  to  propagate  it;  and  many  of  these  mind  healers 
went  off  into  "theosophy,"  "Babism,"  and  all  the  wild 
and  weird  dreams  of  Hindu  pantheism  and  Oriental 
"thought."      Of  course  many  of  these  strange  cults  were 

1  History,  p.  265. 


THE  APPEAL  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  277 

short-lived  and  were  dead  almost  before  they  were  born, 
strangled  by  their  own  absurdity,  but  they  help  to  swell 
the  number  of  these  variations  and  splinters  of  Christian 
Science.  These  movements  and  societies  have  sprung  up 
most  thickly  along  the  track  that  Christian  Science 
followed,  the  fortieth  degree  of  latitude,  "the  richest 
pay  streak  of  our  civilization,"  running  from  Massachu- 
setts through  Illinois  and  Colorado  to  California,  through 
the  regions  of  wealth  and  luxury  and  leisure,  of  cities  and 
high-tension  living,  of  nervous  affections  and  health 
resorts,  and  they  have  been  most  prolific  in  "California 
the  natural  home  of  New  Thought."  An  astonishing 
number  of  ephemeral  magazines  were  born  to  live  their 
little  lives  in  propagation  of  these  new  ideas,  bearing  such 
titles  as  The  Metaphysical  Magazine,  Practical  Ideals, 
Mind,  Unity,  The  Revealer,  The  Healer,  The  Truth 
Seeker,  Eternal  Progress,  Power,  Harmony,  and  Im- 
mortality. *'0f  the  sixty  or  more  miscellaneous  publi- 
cations," says  Mr.  Dresser,  "standing  for  various  phases 
of  the  movement  only  a  very  few  remain.  Meanwhile, 
some  of  the  leading  publications,  such  as  Unity,  Nautilus, 
and  Master  Mind,  have  grown  in  circulation  and  have 
taken  the  place  of  dozens  of  magazines  which  once  ex- 
isted."! 

All  these  movements  have  sprung  up  in  some  degree  as 
rivals  of  Christian  Science  and  have  grown  at  its  expense. 
They  have  occupied  the  same  soil  and  fed  upon  the  same 
sustenance  and  drawn  nourishment  and  strength  away 
from  it.  Christian  Science  is  being  checked  and  devi- 
talized if  not  devoured  by  its  own  children.  Protes- 
tantism against  it  has  broken  out  in  its  own  bosom  in 

1  History,  pp.  315,  316. 


278        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

many  forms  and  reforms,  and  revolt  may  yet  prove  its 
ruin.     Disintegration  is  at  work. 

Besides  all  this  opposition  springing  up  within  itself. 
Christian  Science  is  encountering  increasing  criticism  from 
without.  At  first  and  for  many  years  it  attracted  little 
attention  and  was  practically  let  alone  as  only  another 
harmless  vagary  by  a  visionary  dreamer  that  would  soon 
pass  away  if  left  to  itself.  Serious  people  did  not  take  it 
seriously.  But  when  it  did  not  wither  and  die  but  grew 
vigorously  and  multiplied  prolifically  and  spread  widely, 
observers  and  students  of  it  began  to  "sit  up  and  take 
notice."  Metaphysicians  and  psychologists,  ministers  and 
physicians  and  lawyers,  professors  and  newspaper  reporters 
and  magazine  writers  set  about  the  work  of  investigating  it 
and  writing  articles  and  books  in  which  they  exposed  its 
real  origin  and  doctrines  and  practices.  These  revelations 
were  startling  to  the  general  public  and  were  surprising  if 
not  disillusionizing  news  even  to  many  Christian  Scien- 
tists. This  literature  against  the  system  has  accumu- 
lated and  is  still  growing.  It  is  based  on  facts  that  are 
the  result  of  patient  and  honest  and  thorough  investi- 
gation, conducted  in  a  purely  scientific  spirit,  and  it  is 
backed  up  with  documents,  photographs,  facsimiles, 
affidavits,  and  the  testimony  of  many  witnesses  who  had 
personal  knowledge  of  the  matter. 

It  is  difficult  to  think  that  Christian  Science  can  per- 
manently withstand  all  this  light  and  logic.  Truth  gets 
the  better  of  error  in  the  long  run.  Irrationality  in  time 
chokes  and  strangles  itself.  The  more  error  and  absurdity 
which  any  theory  tries  to  carry,  the  more  certainly  will 
it  break  down  and  go  to  pieces.  Christian  Science  is 
surely  so  burdened  with  absurdities  that  it  cannot  per- 


THE  APPEAL  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  279 

manently  stand  up.  It  may  last  a  long  time,  but  its 
doom  will  overtake  it.  It  cannot  fool  even  all  Christian 
Scientists  all  the  time.  Even  now  the  light  of  truth  and 
common  sense  is  slowly  penetrating  it.l 

Mrs.  Eddy  took  every  precaution  to  guard  her  followers 
from  this  opposition  both  from  within  and  from  without. 
She  tried  to  inoculate  them  so  thoroughly  with  her  own 
ideas  and  to  protect  them  so  rigidly  from  external  con- 
tagion that  they  would  be  immune  from  all  danger  of  in- 
fection. No  such  censorship  as  she  established  and  en- 
forced was  ever  enacted  and  maintained  by  any  despotism 
political  or  ecclesiastical.  But  such  prohibition  cannot  be 
made  effectual  in  this  day  of  the  press.  Books  and  other 
literature  are  multiplying  all  the  while,  and  are  everywhere 
sowing  the  seeds  of  destruction  to  this  system.  All 
science  and  psychology,  as  well  as  true  religion  and  sound 
morals,  are  against  it.  This  knowledge  is  ever  spreading 
silently  and  multitudinously  as  snowflakes  fall  out  of  the 
sky.  It  is  sown  in  the  very  air.  No  one  can  arrest 
the  spread  of  this  knowledge  any  more  than  he  can  stop 
the  wind  or  saber  the  sunlight  to  pieces.  Some  of  this 
light  cannot  be  prevented  from  penetrating  the  minds  of 
Mrs.  Eddy's  followers  and  even  from  filtering  through 
the  windows  of  Christian  Science  churches.  The  marble 
walls  of  The  Mother  Church  itself  may  not  be  wholly 
opaque!  Heresy  has  broken  out  time  and  again  in  the 
very  bosom  of  this  church,  and  it  may  do  so  again  in  a 
more  destructive  form.     Christian  Scientists   still  have 


^  In  a  personal  letter  to  the  author  from  Horatio  W.  Dresser,  he 
states  that  as  a  result  of  the  Boston  lawsuit  he  finds  some  of  the 
leaders  of  Christian  Science  inquiring  into  the  facts  of  the  origin 
and  history  and  teaching  of  the  system  in  a  way  that  is  significant. 


280        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

eyes  and  ears  in  spite  of  their  denial  of  them  as  mere 
mortal  delusions,  and  they  would  have  to  shut  them  and 
stop  them  to  escape  this  pervasive  and  insinuating  knowl- 
edge. They  cannot  keep  it  from  their  children  and  make 
sure  of  the  next  generation;  in  fact,  the  next  generation 
is  pretty  sure  to  revolt  against  the  whole  system.  Every 
Christian  Science  church  has  its  lapsed  members,  many 
have  turned  back  from  it  who  have  seen  the  light  and  let 
their  common  sense  rule  them  once  more.  Many  who 
once  turned  from  Christ  to  Christian  Science  have  dis- 
covered how  false  it  is  to  his  teaching  and  spirit  and  that 
it  has  no  right  to  his  name. 

How  long  this  system  will  last,  no  one  knows,  but  the 
author  feels  confident  that  in  time,  it  may  be  a  long  time, 
it  will  wither  away.  It  cannot  live  in  the  world  of  our 
modern  science  and  philosophy.  It  is  at  war  not  only 
with  the  Christian  Church  but  equally  with  the  common 
school  and  college  and  university.  If  it  is  right,  then  all 
our  scientific  knowledge  is  wrong;  but  if  our  orthodox 
science  is  going  to  stay,  then  Christian  Science  must  go. 
These  two  are  not  agreed  but  are  diametrically  and  hope- 
lessly opposed  to  each  other,  and  they  cannot  walk  to- 
gether or  live  in  the  same  house  or  breathe  the  same  air. 

Horatio  W.  Dresser,  who  has  known  Christian  Science 
intimately  from  its  early  history  and  knows  its  present 
status  as  few  other  students  know  it,  says  of  Mrs.  Eddy 
that  * 'increasing  numbers  have  departed  from  her  organi- 
zation'' and  that  *'in  due  time  the  last  Christian  Scientist 
will  probably  take  leave  in  the  same  way.  In  retrospect 
people  will  then  wonder  why  such  reaction  did  not  occur 
long  before." 


THE  APPEAL  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  281 

7.  SOME  RECENT  MIND-HEALING  MOVEMENTS 

Among  the  many  mind-healing  movements  that  have 
spHt  off  from  Christian  Science  or  have  sprung  up  in 
its  wake  two  are  worthy  of  special  mention.  These  are 
not  forms  of  or  secessions  from  Christian  Science  in  origin, 
but  they  are  of  affiliated  nature. 

(1)  The  first  of  these  is  the  movement  known  as 
*'New  Thought."  The  name  lends  itself  to  ironic  criticism 
if  not  ridicule  as  being  neither  "new"  nor  "thought," 
and  the  infelicity  of  the  title  has  been  felt  and  acknowl- 
edged by  some  of  the  leaders  of  this  school,  but  it  is 
a  survival  out  of  a  number  of  competitors  such  a-s  "Higher 
Thought"  and  "Advanced  Thought." 

The  movement  dates  back  to  Quimby  and  thus  sprung 
from  a  common  source  with  Christian  Science,  though 
it  has  none  of  the  philosophic  vagaries  and  absurdities 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  cult.  Rev.  W.  F.  Evans  taught  some  of 
its  ideas,  and  other  leaders  of  the  school  were  at  times 
more  or  less  closely  associated  with  Christian  Science, 
but  the  movement  in  time  swung  clear  of  the  latter 
system  and  has  no  relations  with  it.  The  first  writer 
to  use  the  capitalized  phrase  "New  Thought"  was  Dr. 
W.  F.  Holcombe  in  1889.  In  1895  Mr.  C.  B.  Patterson 
published  a  volume  entitled  "What  Is  the  New  Thought?" 
Henry  Wood  has  been  a  prolific  author  on  the  subject, 
his  "Symphony  of  Life"  appearing  in  1901,  and  Ralph 
Waldo  Trine  has  been  another  voluminous  writer,  his 
well-known  "In  Tune  with  the  Infinite"  appearing  in 
1898. 

The  most  prominent  leader  and  teacher,  however,  of 
New  Thought  is  Horatio  W.  Dresser,  Ph.  D.,  who  is  the 
author  of  many  books  on  the  subject  and  whose  recent 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

"History  of  the  New  Thought  Movement"  is  the  fullest 
and  most  authoritative  account  of  this  school.  This 
volume  shows  how  widespread  is  this  movement,  what 
are  its  leading  ideas,  how  various  are  its  manifestations, 
and  how  abundant  is  its  literature.  The  fundamental 
idea  of  New  Thought  is  the  primary  reality  and  supremacy 
of  the  inner  spiritual  life  as  dominant  over  the  outer 
life  of  the  body  and  the  world.  As  to  mind  healing  the 
system  emphasizes  the  power  of  the  mind  over  the  body 
and  uses  suggestion,  autosuggestion,  and  affirmation  as 
the  means  of  intensifying  the  recuperative  energies  of 
the  body  and  eradicating  disease.  It  has  no  part  nor  lot 
with  Christian  Science  in  denying  the  reality  of  matter 
and  of  sin  and  suffering  and  is  in  sympathy  with  Chris- 
tianity. 

The  author  asked  Dr.  Dresser  to  give  a  brief  account  of 
the  teaching  of  this  movement  and  he  has  contributed  to 
this  volume  the  following  statement : 

WHAT  THE  NEW  THOUGHT  STANDS  FOR 

The  New  Thought  is  a  practical  philosophy  of  the  inner  life  in 
relation  to  health,  happiness,  social  welfare,  and  success.  Man  as  a 
spiritual  being  is  living  an  essentially  spiritual  life,  for  the  sake 
of  the  soul.  His  life  proceeds  from  within  outward,  and  makes  for 
harmony,  health,  freedom,  efficiency,  service.  He  needs  to  realize 
the  spiritual  truth  of  his  being,  that  he  may  rise  above  all  ills  and 
all  obstacles  into  fullness  of  power.  Every  resource  he  could  ask 
for  is  at  hand,  in  the  omnipresent  divine  wisdom.  Every  individual 
can  learn  to  draw  upon  divine  resources.  The  special  methods  of 
the  New  Thought  grow  out  of  this  central  spiritual  principle.  Much 
stress  is  put  upon  inner  or  spiritual  concentration  and  inner  control, 
because  each  of  us  needs  to  become  still  to  learn  how  to  be  affirmative, 
optimistic.  Suggestion  or  affirmation  is  employed  to  banish  ills  and 
errors  and  establish  spiritual  truth  in  their  place.  Silent  or  mental 
treatment  is  employed  to  overcome  disease  and  secure  freedom  and 
success.  The  New  Thought  then  is  not  a  substitute  for  Christianity, 
but  an  inspired  return  to  the  original  teaching  and  practice  of  the 
gospels.     It  is  not  opposed  to  the  churches,  but  aims  to  make  religion 


THE  APPEAL  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  283 

immediately  serviceable  and  practical.  It  is  not  hostile  to  science 
but  wishes  to  spiritualize  all  facts  and  laws.  It  encourages  each 
man  to  begin  wherever  he  is,  however  conditioned,  whatever  he  may- 
find  to  occupy  his  hands;  and  to  learn  the  great  spiritual  lessons 
taught  by  this  present  experience. 

It  will  be  noted  that  Dr.  Dresser  affirms  the  New 
Thought  is  not  a  substitute  for  Christianity  but  a  return 
to  the  gospels,  and  other  writers  of  this  school  are  quoted 
to  the  same  effect  in  his  ''History."  **The  clear  province 
of  the  New  Thought  school  of  writers  and  teachers  is  not 
the  abrogation  of  any  Christian  principles,  but  rather  to 
give  a  better  interpretation  to  those  principles,  consonant 
with  truth,  righteousness  and  health."  Yet  New  Thought 
is  affiliated  with  * 'Liberal  Christianity"  and  has  small 
affinity  or  sympathy  with  orthodox  doctrines.  It  denies 
or  at  least  greatly  minimizes  original  sin  and  affirms  the 
the  natural  divinity  of  man  and  aims  at  arousing  and 
raising  his  inner  resources  to  their  highest  power.  It  is 
not  a  doctrine  and  system  of  divine  redemption  but  of 
human  self-realization. 

The  New  Thought  movement  finds  expression  in  several 
magazines  as  well  as  in  a  large  literature,  and  it  has 
become  organized  in  many  local  associations,  usually 
called  New  Thought  "centers"  or  "churches,"  in  the 
National  New  Thought  Alliance  and  in  the  International 
New  Thought  Congress.  It  flourishes  chiefly  in  the 
"richest  pay  streak  of  our  civilization"  that  follows  the 
fortieth  degree  of  latitude  from  Massachusetts  to  Cali- 
fornia. 

(2)  The  Emmanuel  Church  Movement  was  inaugurated 
in  1906  in  Emmanuel  Episcopal  Church  in  Boston  by 
its  rector,  Dr.  Elwood  Worcester,  and  several  associ- 
ates,   especially   Dr.    Samuel    McComb    and    Isador   H. 


284        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Coriat,  M.  D.^  The  object  of  the  movement  was  and  is 
to  meet  Christian  Science  on  its  own  ground  and  restore 
to  the  Christian  Church  the  healing  ministry  which 
Christianity  practiced  in  the  first  three  Christian  centuries. 
The  movement,  so  far  from  disowning  or  disparaging  the 
place  of  medicine  and  the  physician  in  the  treatment  of 
disease,  employs  these  agencies  and  does  not  at  all  attempt 
to  treat  all  disease  independently  of  them  or  by  moral 
means  alone;  but  it  also  emphasizes  the  part  the  mind 
plays  in  the  healing  of  the  body  and  utilizes  them  in  its 
church  clinics 

In  answer  to  a  request  for  a  brief  statement  of  his 
theory  and  practice  Dr.  Worcester  sent  the  following: 

We  have  gone  so  far  in  our  denial  of  the  soul  as  a  factor  of  health 
and  disease  that  our  treatment  of  the  sick  has  become  almost 
entirely  material  from  which  we  try  to  exclude  religion  altogether. 
If  we  look  no  further  than  the  success  of  the  treatment  and  the 
recovery  of  the  patient,  this  is  a  great  mistake.  William  James  said: 
"I  regard  as  one  of  the  most  certain  facts  of  medicine  that  prayer  is 
beneficial  to  the  sick."  The  two  parts  of  human  nature  cannot  be 
separated  so  rudely  without  great  harm  to  both  patient  and  physician. 
In  every  form  of  disease  the  moral  condition  of  the  patient  counts 
for  much,  as  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  defeated  armies  always 
suffer  more  from  wounds  and  illness  than  victorious  armies,  while  in 
almost  all  forms  of  psychical  and  nervous  disturbance,  physical 
treatment,  apart  from  ensuing  wholesome  conditions  of  life,  counts 
for  little  and  psychical  and  spiritual  treatment  alone  can  be  counted 
on  for  results.  As  Emmanuel  has  done  more  than  any  other  Church 
in  Christendom  to  follow  the  example  of  the  early  Church  in  a  manner 
consistent  with  the  science  and  culture  of  our  times,  I  feel  privileged 
to  speak  freely  on  this  subject. 

1  These  three  men  were  the  joint  authors  of  their  well-known  book 
entitled  Religion  and  Medicine:  The  Moral  Control  of  Nervous  Dis' 
orders^  1908,  which  is  still  one  of  the  most  important  contributions 
to  this  subject.  The  same  authors  and  two  other  associates  have 
since  brought  out  jointly  or  singly  the  following  books  which  belong 
to  the  literature  of  this  school:  Abnormal  Psychology,  What  Is 
Psychoanalysis?  The  Christian  Religion  as  a  Healing  Power,  The 
Living  Word,  The  Re-making  of  a  Man,  and  Religious  Aspects  of 
Scientific  Healing. 


THE  APPEAL  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  285 

Our  work  has  been  going  on  steadily  for  nearly  fourteen  years. 
During  this  time  a  great  procession  of  people  have  passed  through 
our  church,  coming  from  all  Christian  bodies,  including  a  good 
many  Roman  Catholics  and  also  a  good  many  Jews.  We  have 
done  this  work  at  the  cost  of  a  good  deal  of  time  and  effort  without 
any  charge,  though  we  have  expected  persons  of  means  to  contribute 
to  the  work  in  order  that  we  might  be  free  to  extend  it  to  the  poor, 
and  to  provide  them  with  methods  of  treatment  which  are  frequently 
costly,  such  as  the  care  of  specialists,  sojourns  in  hospitals,  sanatoria, 
etc.,  the  payment  of  oculists,  dentists,  etc.  In  short  our  work  is 
based  on  common  sense.  For  many  years  we  maintained  a  depart- 
ment for  the  treatment  of  victims  of  alcohol  and  morphine  and 
other  habit-forming  drugs,  but  since  prohibition  has  become  a  fact 
our  services  are  much  less  frequently  called  on  for  this  type  of  case. 
Our  work  has  grown  slowly  and  is  represented  in  several  other 
cities  by  good  and  worthy  men.  We  have  confined  our  work  to 
the  field  of  the  neuroses  and  psychoses  as  this  is  the  field  in  which 
all  forms  of  psychotherapy  are  to  be  regarded  as  independent 
remedial  agencies,  but  we  have  frequently  cooperated  with  physicians 
and  surgeons  in  bringing  relief  to  their  patients  in  facilitating  their 
recovery,  helping  them  to  an  improved  moral  and  spiritual  condition. 

No  exception  can  be  taken  to  this  work  from  either  a 
medical  or  a  religious  point  of  view,  and  it  sets  a  worthy- 
example  for  more  service  of  this  kind  in  all  our  churches. 
It  should  be  remembered,  however,  that  our  churches  are 
doing  this  work  in  a  large  way  through  hospitals  and  other 
public  and  private  remedial  agencies  that  are  so  generally 
supported  by  the  churches  and  that  are  predominately 
Christian  institutions  and  are  virtually  extensions  of  the 
Christian  Church.  Religion  and  medicine,  that  once  were 
united  in  one  person  and  institution,  are  now  divided  and 
distributed  among  specialists,  and  yet  both  the  minister 
and  the  physician  remain  Christian  and  are  doing  the 
work  of  Christianity.  Dr.  Worcester  himself  recognizes 
and  emphasizes  this  fact  in  one  of  his  sermons  as  follows : 

It  cannot  be  said  that  Christians  in  modern  times  have  neglected 
the  care  of  the  sick.  In  this  country  and  in  every  progressive 
country  throughout  Christendom  splendid  free  hospitals  have  been 


286        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

erected,  well  supplied  with  devoted  nurses  and  furnished  with 
every  equipment  for  the  diagnosis  and  treatment  of  disease.  Young 
physicians  frequent  these  hospitals  as  part  of  their  medical  education. 
Great  and  famous  physicians  and  surgeons  serve  in  them,  without 
compensation  and  with  a  most  unselfish  expenditure  of  time  and 
effort. 

There  were  no  such  institutions  for  the  treatment  of 
disease  in  ancient  times  or  in  the  early  Christian 
centuries,  and  we  may  venture  to  assert  that  Christianity 
through  these  and  other  institutions  as  well  as  through 
its  direct  ministry  of  helpfulness  and  cheer  is  doing  im- 
mensely more  for  the  sick  and  the  poor  in  our  day  than  it 
did  or  could  do  in  its  early  history.  Yet  there  is  a  call 
that  the  churches  should  give  more  attention  and  service 
to  this  field  of  human  need,  and  Emmanuel  Church  has 
made  an  important  contribution  to  this  problem.! 

1  For  a  "Review  of  the  Emmanuel  Movement,"  giving  "Points 
in  Favor  of  the  Emmanuel  Movement,"  and  "Points  Against  the 
Emmanuel  Movement,"  see  E.  E.  Weaver,  Mind  and  Health,  pp. 
291-310. 


CHAPTER  XI 
OLD  TRUTHS  NEWLY  EMPHASIZED 

We  should  always  learn  from  the  opposition.  It  may- 
be protesting  against  some  error  in  our  position  which 
we  should  correct,  or  emphasizing  some  aspect  of  truth 
which  we  have  obscured  or  lost.  As  there  is  always  a  soul 
of  good  in  things  evil,  so  is  there  always  some  truth  in 
error  which  gives  it  its  vitality  and  growth  and  which  we 
should  see  and  seize  and  use.  A  movement,  however 
wrong  it  may  seem  or  be,  always  has  some  ground  of 
justification,  otherwise  it  could  not  move  or  even  stand 
up.  Rebellions  are  usually  reactions  against  wrong  which 
they  are  trying  to  set  right.  Reforms  are  restorations. 
Reformations  are  re-formations.  We  sometimes  must  go 
backward  in  order  to  go  forward.  When  we  have  lost  old 
truths  we  should  recover  them  and  make  them  new.  We 
should  not  be  in  the  least  ashamed  or  reluctant  to  rec- 
ognize and  accept  any  truth  in  the  possession  of  an  op- 
ponent which  we  do  not  have,  but  should  be  quick  and 
glad  to  adopt  and  proclaim  it. 

Christian  Science  must  have  large  elements  of  truth 
or  it  would  never  have  attained  its  present  standing  and 
wide  acceptance,  and  we  have  been  conceding  this  fact 
all  the  way  through  this  study.  There  are  *'lost  truths" 
in  our  Christianity  which  we  need  to  recover  and  restore 
to  their  full  force  and  fruitfulness.  The  old  truths  we 
are  about  to  emphasize  have  not  been  wholly  lost,  but 

287 


288        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

they  have  in  some  degree  fallen  into  the  background  and 
are  not  receiving  their  due  emphasis,  and  Christian  Science 
has  seized  and  claimed  them  as  its  peculiar  principles 
and  then  capitalized  them  as  its  popular  and  powerful 
assets.  But  they  really  belong  to  orthodox  Christianity 
and  always  have  belonged  to  it  in  their  true  form  and  force, 
though  at  times  they  have  been  obscured  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  orthodox  Christians.  They  are  set  forth 
in  the  Bible  all  the  way  through  it,  and  we  should  cultivate 
and  exemplify  them  in  their  fullest  degree  and  finest 
fruitage. 

What  are  some  of  these  old  truths  that  should  be 
newly  emphasized? 

1.  THE  SUPREMACY  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL 

Materialism  is  one  of  the  greatest  dangers  of  our  life 
to-day.  We  do  not  refer  to  philosophical  materialism, 
such  as  the  crass  doctrines  of  Buchner  and  Haeckel,  for 
these  are  now  so  generally  discredited  in  the  world  of 
thought  that  there  is  scarcely  any  so  poor  as  to  do  them 
reverence.  But  practice  may  linger  long  after  the  theory 
of  it  is  gone,  and  the  practical  materialism  of  the  bodily 
life  still  persists  and  waxes  lusty.  The  undue  emphasis 
and  value  put  upon  business  and  bread,  wages  and  profits, 
wealth  and  leisure  and  luxury,  fashion  and  pleasure, 
position  and  power,  whet  up  our  bodily  instincts  and 
appetites  to  their  keenest  edge  and  make  them  fierce  and 
aggressive.  Probably  more  thought  and  effort  are  now 
given  to  the  upkeep  and  comfort  of  the  body  than  ever 
before.  Life  with  many  is  a  mad  craving  and  search  for 
pleasure,  a  constant  itching  for  a  new  thrill.  Multitudes 
would  turn  life  into  a  picnic  and  moving-picture  show 


OLD  TRUTHS  NEWLY  EMPHASIZED  289 

with  no  higher  thought  than  sensuous  excitement.  The 
soul  is  thus  being  drowned  in  a  sea  of  sensations  and  the 
spirit  sunk  in  the  flesh. 

The  materiahstic  hfe  has  been  greatly  intensified  by 
our  modern  science  and  marvelous  machines  which  have 
had  the  effect  of  enormously  extending  and  multiplying 
and  refining  our  physical  powers.  The  human  body  has 
outgrown  the  human  soul,  and  from  one  point  of  view 
this  is  what  is  the  matter  with  the  world  to-day.  We 
are  now  armed  with  contrivances  and  powers  by  which 
we  stride  across  continents  and  seas,  take  to  the  air  on 
wings,  prowl  around,  like  terrible  sharks,  under  the  ocean, 
flash  our  thoughts  and  the  very  tones  of  our  voice  along 
telegraphic  and  telephonic  wires  and  shoot  them  on  wire- 
less waves  through  the  ether  around  the  globe.  Our 
great  guns  and  high  explosives  have  extended  the  reach 
of  our  arms  to  sixty  or  seventy  miles  and  multiplied  the 
punch  of  the  human  fist  a  million  times.  Our  poisonous 
gases  enable  us  to  emit  a  deadly  breath  over  wide  areas 
that  blasts  every  living  thing.  The  human  body  has 
thus  become,  so  to  speak,  a  huge  armored  steel  tank 
that  goes  lumbering  along  spitting  fire  and  a  leaden  hail 
of  death  and  trampling  everything  under  its  juggernaut 
wheels,  with  a  little  soul  rattling  around  in  it.  Our  science, 
like  Frankenstein,  has  created  a  frightful  monster  which 
is  now  getting  beyond  our  control  and  is  crushing  us  in 
its  steel  arms.  Steam  and  electricity,  oil  and  gas,  physics 
and  chemistry  are  now  our  nimble  servants  and  are  making 
us  masters  of  the  earth  and  sea  and  sky. 

This  overdeveloped  human  body  also  has  an  enormous 
appetite  for  wealth  and  pleasure  and  power.  It  is  insati- 
able in  its  greed  and  is  consuming  everything  in  its  way. 


290       THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

It  is  whipping  up  our  life  into  a  hot  pursuit  and  passion 
for  wealth,  sowing  our  industrial  order  with  competition 
and  injustice  and  strife,  corrupting  our  politics,  turning 
our  social  life  into  a  mad  whirl  of  pleasure  and  under- 
mining our  morals.  It  has  just  devastated  the  world  like 
a  fearful  monster  breathing  out  fire  and  slaughter  in  a 
great  war.  It  still  threatens  to  upset  the  world  and  wreck 
our  very  civilization  as  it  strides  over  ancient  landmarks 
of  law  and  order,  right  and  duty,  and  crushes  all  things 
under  its  iron  hoofs. 

Science  and  industry  have  also  multiplied  the  comforts 
and  luxuries  of  life  so  that  they  have  wrapped  the  body 
in  a  swathe  of  softness  which  breeds  effeminacy  in  the 
soul.  Our  fathers  labored  to  conquer  their  hard  con- 
ditions of  life  and  bequeathed  to  us  easy  conditions  that 
are  now  conquering  us.  They  struggled  in  the  bitter 
battle  with  scarcity  which  yet  disciplined  them  in  plain 
living  and  high  thinking,  but  now  we  must  struggle  with 
the  corrupting  materialism  of  abundance  which  debilitates 
our  nerves,  relaxes  our  vigor  and  virtue,  multiplies  our 
temptations,  and  weakens  our  wills.  They  wrestled 
against  flesh  and  blood,  but  we  must  wrestle  with  spiritual 
hosts  of  wickedness  and  with  vast  doubts  of  which  they 
never  dreamed. 

This  development  of  the  human  body  was  inevitable 
and  has  in  it  as  great  power  for  good  as  for  evil,  but  the 
development  of  the  soul  has  not  kept  pace  with  it  and 
has  fallen  under  its  power.  Our  character  and  conscience 
are  not  equal  to  the  control  of  our  iron  muscles  and  steel 
nerves  throbbing  with  electricity.  The  material  is  mas- 
tering and  smothering  the  spiritual,  and  we  must  now 
reverse  this  relation  and  put  spirit  on  top,  conscience 


OLD  TRUTHS  NEWLY  EMPHASIZED  291 

in  control.  All  these  material  forces  and  powerful  ma- 
chines are  splendid  agencies  of  good  when  they  are  sub- 
ordinated to  the  spirit. 

The  cure  for  and  safeguard  against  this  dangerous 
materialism  is  the  recovery  and  emphasis  of  the  spiritual. 
The  soul  is  the  primary  and  supreme  reality  and  value 
of  life,  of  which  the  body  is  only  the  shell  and  servant. 
The  body  is  a  good  slave  when  kept  in  subjection,  but  a 
terrible  master  when  it  gains  the  ascendancy.  Matter 
in  some  degree,  controls  the  mind,  but  in  an  indefinitely 
greater  degree  mind  masters  matter.  Biology  is  more 
and  more  coming  to  the  conclusion  that  mind  is  the 
architectonic  principle  that  builds  the  organism  of  the 
body.  The  brain  does  not  secrete  mind,  but  mind  carves 
the  brain.  We  have  seen  how  at  times  the  mind  may  be 
kindled  into  such  intensity  that  it  will  burn  right  through 
the  body  and  melt  and  mold  it  to  its  purpose.  The 
philosophy  of  idealism  asserts  this  supremacy  of  the 
spiritual,  and  we  should  translate  this  true  idealism  into 
life  and  conduct. 

The  call  of  the  age  and  of  the  hour  is  for  a  revalua- 
tion of  our  goods,  a  replacing  of  the  emphasis  of  life. 
A  truth  that  we  need  to  have  stamped  on  all  our 
standards  and  burnt  into  our  consciousness  and  conscience 
is,  "A  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of 
the  things  which  he  possesseth."  We  need  to  transfer  the 
standard  of  value  and  the  emphasis  of  life  from  the 
outer  to  the  inner,  from  outer  wealth  to  inner  worth, 
from  outer  position  to  inner  disposition,  from  the 
flesh  to  the  spirit.  Peace  and  power  have  their  true 
throne  and  scepter  in  the  soul  and  not  in  the  world. 
The    soul    should    have    large  and  rich  inner  resources 


^92        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

that  are  its  real  treasure  and  satisfaction,  joy  and 
happiness,  so  that  it  will  carry  its  own  comfort  around 
with  it  and  be  independent  of  external  circumstances 
and  vicissitudes.  It  should  have  within  itself  a  well 
of  water  springing  up  in  a  pure  stream  of  life  that  has 
its  source  deeper  than  the  world  and  is  careless  of  its 
changing  weather.  The  soul  should  be  kindled  into 
such  a  glow  of  thought  and  aspiration  that  it  will  shine 
through  the  flesh  and  transform  and  transfigure  it.  We 
should  be  so  saturated  with  the  spirit  that  it  will  purify 
and  refine  our  vision,  and  then  we  shall  see  the  whole 
world  steeped  in  its  splendor.  "It  is  the  transcendental 
or  mystical  sense,  the  sense  of  the  Infinite,  Idealism,  call 
it  what  you  will,  that  gives  to  life  its  glory  and  dignity. 
It  gives  an  added  sense  of  beauty  to  the  world  in  which 
we  live;  it  tends  to  deepen  our  spiritual  experience;  it 
makes  us  an  instrument  of  good  to  our  fellow  men;  above 
all  it  gives  us  peace  for  which  the  whole  world  is  seeking."^ 
By  all  the  means  of  grace  and  education  and  by  all 
the  resolute  strivings  of  the  will  we  should  arouse  and 
inspire  ourselves  to  "walk  not  after  the  flesh,  but  after 
the  Spirit."  Thus  shall  we  recover  the  idealism  which 
Christian  Science  to  some  extent  has  capitalized  and  re- 
store it  to  its  real  place  and  interpret  it  in  its  true  meaning 
and  develop  it  into  its  full  power  and  fruitage. 

2.  THE  GOSPEL  OF  HEALTH 

"Know  ye  not  that  your  body  is  a  temple  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.?"  Then  the  proper  care  of  "our  brother  the  body," 
as  Saint  Francis  called  it,  is  a  part  of  our  Christianity. 
The  body  is  the  physical  basis  of  our  life,  even  of  our 

1  Oscar  Kuhns,  The  Sense  of  the  Infinite,  p.  261. 


OLD  TRUTHS  NEWLY  EMPHASIZED  293 

highest  and  finest  spiritual  life.  "A  man  cannot  be  a 
saint,"  it  has  been  said,  "a  poet,  or  a  lover  unless  he  has 
recently  had  something  to  eat."  Soul  and  body  are 
closely  interwoven  into  a  vital  unity  and  mutually  and 
profoundly  affect  each  other.  Religion  therefore  has 
always  been  deeply  interested  in  the  health  of  the  body, 
and,  in  fact,  religion  and  medicine  orginally  were  united 
in  one  science  and  art.  A  surprisingly  large  part  of  the 
ministry  of  Jesus  had  to  do  with  the  healing  or  the  feeding 
of  the  body,  twenty-six  out  of  his  thirty-three  miracles 
being  of  this  nature.  "Gifts  of  healings"  were  possessed 
by  the  early  Christians,  and  the  exercise  of  this  power 
was  a  prominent  feature  in  the  Christian  life  of  the  Apos- 
tolic Church. 

At  times  theories  and  practices  have  prevailed  that 
viewed  the  body  as  a  hindrance  to  religion — not  as  "the 
brother"  but  as  the  "ass"  of  the  soul — to  be  subjected 
to  all  manner  of  ascetic  deprivations  and  even  abuse. 
But  we  have  swung  back  to  saner  views  and  are  rather  in 
danger  of  going  to  the  opposite  extreme.  "Health"  and 
"wholeness"  and  "holiness"  are  only  three  variant 
spellings  of  the  same  word,  and  this  fact  indicates  that 
these  three  things  have  close  common  roots  and  relations. 
"A  sane  mind  in  a  sound  body"  is  a  true  ideal.  Sickness 
has  some  connection  with  sin,  either  directly  by  reason  of 
personal  violation  of  the  laws  of  health,  or  indirectly 
through  heredity  or  contagion,  or  bad  sanitary  and  social 
conditions  and  racial  history.  Pains  are  penalties,  and 
often  this  fact  stares  and  stabs  us  in  the  face,  though  at 
other  times  the  connection  may  be  hidden  under  one  or 
several  generations;  even  every  bitter  tear  drop  has  in  it 
some  sediment  or  tincture  of  sin.     And  yet  also  "pain  is 


294       THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

friendly,"  as  Henry  Wood  said,  meaning  that  it  is  a 
friendly  warning  or  a  means  to  greater  good.  Even  the 
deadly  microbe  is  a  divine  messenger  for  us  to  resist  with 
the  protective  armor  of  vigorous  health  or  to  master  and 
thereby  rise  to  higher  dominion,  for  "He  hath  made  every 
thing  beautiful  in  its  time."  We  are  challenged  to  meet 
all  the  germs  and  forms  of  disease,  not  by  "denying" 
them,  but  by  recognizing  their  reality  and  penetrating 
into  their  condition  and  cause  and  overcoming  them  by 
the  divinely  appointed  means.  It  is  therefore  a  religious 
and  Christian  duty  to  get  rid  of  illness  and  have  that 
wholeness  of  body  that  is  health  arid  contributes  to  the 
holiness  of  the  soul. 

In  fulfilling  this  duty  there  are  appropriate  and  neces- 
sary means  to  be  used.  Primary  and  fundamental  among 
these  is  obedience  to  the  laws  of  health:  the  proper  use  of 
food  and  exercise,  work  and  play,  rest  and  recreation,  sleep 
and  fresh  air  and  sunshine.  These  means  also  include 
medical  science  and  art,  for  medicine  is  just  as  natural 
and  necessary  for  disease  as  food  is  for  health.  In  fact, 
medicine  is  a  special  kind  of  food  which  meets  certain 
abnormal  needs  of  the  body  as  ordinary  food  meets  its 
normal  needs.  Quinine  and  calomel  are  as  truly  products 
of  nature  and  good  gifts  of  God  and  as  certainly  have 
their  uses  for  the  body  as  wheat  and  rice  and  strawberries. 
The  body  in  health  is  like  a  watch  in  good  order:  it  then 
needs  only  regular  winding  or  renewal  of  its  energy, 
which  corresponds  with  normal  food  for  and  care  of  the 
body.  But  when  the  watch  has  a  broken  spring  or  is 
otherwise  out  of  order  it  requires  the  watchmaker,  who 
corresponds  with  the  physician  and  surgeon.  The 
physician,  then,  is  as  divinely  appointed  to  mmister  to 


OLD  TRUTHS  NEWLY  EMPHASIZED  295 

the  body  in  sickness  as  is  the  clergyman  to  minister  to 
the  soul  in  its  sin.  The  two  offices,  which  were  once 
united  in  the  same  person,  are  now  separated  and  each 
assigned  to  a  specialist,  but  they  both  have  a  divine 
mission  and  we  are  to  use  the  services  of  both  in  the 
restoration  of  the  body  and  the  soul  from  sickness  and 
sin. 

The  duty  of  health  includes  as  a  vital  means  the  influ- 
ence of  the  mind  on  thh  body.  Mind  healing,  as  has  all 
along  been  admitted  and  seen,  is  a  powerful  curative  agent. 
We  should  therefore  have  faith  in  the  physician  and  in  the 
means  he  uses  for  our  recovery  from  disease;  and  we 
should  especially  strive  to  arouse  and  exercise  a  hopeful 
spirit  and  masterful  will  that  will  react  on  the  body  and 
help  to  drive  out  disease  and  generate  health.  The 
practice  of  cheerfulness  and  hope  stimulates  the  curative 
and  healthful  forces  of  the  body  and  raises  the  level  and 
increases  the  volume  of  its  vitality.  *'A  cheerful  heart 
is  a  good  medicine"  (Pro v.  17:22). 

The  gospel  of  health,  in  common  with  the  gospel  of 
holiness,  includes  prayer  and  faith  in  God.  God  is 
sovereign  in  the  material  as  in  the  spiritual  world  and 
can  answer  prayer  for  recovery  from  disease  and  restora- 
tion to  health  as  certainly  as  he  can  atiswer  any  other 
prayer.  We  do  not  say  that  he  will  do  this  by  a  miracle, 
but  he  can  do  it  by  the  use  of  means,  including  the  physi- 
cian's skill  and  medicines,  and  by  his  immediate  control 
of  the  laws  of  nature  without  violating  them.  If  man 
can  in  some  degree  control  and  cure  disease,  cannot  God 
do  the  same  in  an  infinitely  more  effective  and  perfect 
way?  We  do  not  need  to  understand  just  how  God 
answers  prayer  in  the  case  of  disease,  but  this  kind  of 


296       THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

prayer  puts  no  undue  or  special  strain  on  our  faith,  and 
we  should  unhesitatingly  exercise  it  in  childlike  con- 
fidence. It  does  not  follow,  of  course,  that  God  will 
answer  every  such  prayer  by  restoring  the  sick,  for  he 
may  have  wisely  and  kindly  appointed  otherwise.  But 
we  have  a  religious  and  rational  right  to  appeal  to  him  in 
sickness,  and  then  leave  the  result  with  him.l 

We  cannot  here  go  into  the  question  of  how  and  how 
far  the  Church  can  undertake  faith  healing  methods.  We 
sympathize  with  the  Emmanuel  Movement  of  Dr.  Wor- 
cester, but  think  such  methods  should  be  carefully 
guarded.  It  is  not  well  for  the  minister  to  undertake 
work  that  lies  beyond  his  field  and  special  training,  and 
he  should  know  better  than  to  intrude  into  the  sphere  of 
skilled  medical  art.  Yet  the  Church  can  and  should 
emphasize  the  duty  of  being  well  and  can  help  to  enforce 
the  use  of  the  means  to  this  end  and  especially  of  right 
living  and  of  the  holiness  that  is  so  vitally  connected  with 
health.  Churches  are  also  now  employing  physicians  and 
nurses  as  part  of  their  ministry,  especially  among  the  poor. 

It  is  the  special  ofiice  of  the  Church  to  enjoin  and 
practice  faith  and  prayer  in  connection  with  disease  and 
to  raise  all  life  into  harmony  with  God.  Religion  is 
sanitation  of  the  body  as  well  as  sanctification  of  the  soul, 


1  The  Report  of  the  English  "Clerical  and  Medical  Committee  on 
Spiritual  Healing"  made  in  April,  1914,  the  committee  consisting  of 
ten  eminent  clergymen  and  ten  eminent  medical  authorities,  says 
that  they  "desire  to  express  their  belief  in  the  efficacy  of  prayer," 
and  that  "they  consider  that  spiritual  ministration  should  be  recog- 
nized equally  with  medical  ministration  as  carrying  God's  blessing 
to  the  sick,"  and  they  add,  "Too  often  it  has  been  forgotten  that 
health,  bodily  and  mental,  is  capable  of  being  influenced  for  good 
by  spiritual  means."     P.  15. 


OLD  TRUTHS  NEWLY  EMPHASIZED  297 

and  by  fulfilling  its  duty  more  efficiently  in  this  field  the 
Christian  Church  will  render  another  form  of  service 
which  rightly  belongs  to  it,  but  which  Christian  Science 
has  sought  to  appropriate  as  though  it  were  its  own 
peculiar  possession.  "And  the  God  of  peace  himself 
sanctify  you  wholly;  and  may  your  spirit  and  soul  and 
body  be  preserved  entire,  without  blame  at  the  coming  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ"  (I  Thess.  5:23). 

S.  THE  DUTY  OF  CHEERFULNESS 

To  be  saved  is  not  to  be  sad.  Some  doctrines  and  prac- 
tices of  religion  have  given  the  impression  that  it  is. 
Asceticism  reduced  the  body  to  the  lowest  terms  in  order 
to  raise  the  soul  to  the  highest  power.  And  there  is  some 
truth  in  this  theory.  The  body  should  always  be  kept 
in  subordination  to  the  soul,  and  it  may  be  well  at  times 
to  subject  it  to  special  discipline.  Puritanism  seemed  to 
think  that  there  was  something  divine  in  discomfort. 
Pleasure  in  all  its  forms  and  degrees  was  thought  to  be 
dangerous,  and  the  only  way  to  be  safe  was  to  be  miserable. 
A  heatless  church  in  winter  was  supposed  to  be  a  means 
of  grace.  The  Sabbath  especially  was  made  a  day 
of  restriction  and  harshness.  Worldly  activities  and 
thoughts  were  banned,  and  the  day  was  given  over  to 
religious  exercises.  To  laugh  or  play  was  held  to  be  a 
desecration  of  the  sacred  day,  and  sometimes  the  im- 
pression was  given  that  even  to  smile  was  a  sin.  Re- 
ligion is  rightly  associated  with  reverence,  but  simply  to 
look  solemn  is  not  to  be  sanctified.  A  long-faced  visage 
is  no  proof  of  piety.  John  Foster  long  ago  exposed  this 
species    of    sanctimonious  cant  in  his  celebrated  essay 


298       THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

"On  Some  Causes  by  which  Evangelical  Religion  had  been 
rendered  unacceptable  to  Men  of  Cultivated  Taste." 

When  we  open  the  Bible  we  do  not  find  this  ascetic, 
somber,  depressing  religion,  but  the  religion  of  cheerful- 
ness. "Serve  the  Lord  with  gladness"  is  a  voice  that 
rings  through  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  New  Testament 
is  equally  a  book  of  joy.  Joy  was  the  first  note  in  the 
angel's  song  at  Bethlehem,  and  the  very  word  "gospel" 
means  "good  news."  Of  Jesus  himself  it  is  said  that  he 
was  "anointed  .  .  .  with  the  oil  of  gladness  above  thy 
fellows,"  that  is,  he  was  the  gladdest  man  and  most 
jubilant  optimist  that  ever  lived.  Paul,  writing  farewell 
words  to  the  Philippians  and  summing  up  and  empha- 
sizing his  most  important  message,  says:  "Finally,  my 
brethren,  rejoice  in  the  Lord."  Then  a  little  later  he 
says:  "Rejoice  in  the  Lord  always:  again  I  will  say.  Re- 
joice," thus  iterating  and  reiterating  this  injunction  and 
giving  it  a  threefold  repetition  and  emphasis.  Joy  is  the 
very  message  and  music  of  salvation.  If  we  believe  in 
God  we  shall  have  abiding  confidence  and  hope  and  cheer 
in  all  conditions  and  in  the  darkest  hour.  God  is  not  a 
God  of  gloom,  but  of  sunshine  and  blue  sky,  flower  blos- 
som and  bird  song.  If  we  catch  the  light  of  his  face  it 
will  make  our  faces  shine.  A  truly  sanctified  soul  is  the 
sweetest  soul,  full  of  peace  and  happiness. 

Cheerfulness  can  be  cultivated.  At  this  point  the  power 
of  the  mind  over  the  body  is  again  manifested,  and  the 
mastery  of  the  will  over  the  states  of  the  soul  and  over 
its  circumstances  asserts  itself.  By  simply  looking  sad 
we  can  feel  sad  and  make  others  feel  sad  and  can  even 
make  ourselves  cry  and  shed  copious  tears.  But  by 
willing  to  be  cheerful  and  putting  on  a  pleasant  smile, 


OLD  TRUTHS  NEWLY  EMPHASIZED  299 

the  heart  can  be  quickened,  gloom  can  be  dissipated, 
and  lively  spirits  will  diffuse  themselves  through  the  whole 
soul  and  body.  The  practice  of  cheerfulness  will  in  time 
beget  a  cheerful  disposition  and  wreathe  the  face  In  smiles. 
Character  carves  the  countenance.  Our  very  face  has 
been  molded  by  all  our  thinking  and  feeling  and  *'is  the 
result,"  says  Victor  Hugo,  "of  a  multitude  of  mysterious 
excavations."  The  face  of  Moses  shone  when  he  came 
down  from  communion  with  God  on  Sinai,  and  Jesus  was 
transfigured  on  the  mount  when  his  divine  glory  was 
unloosed  and  permitted  to  stream  through  his  flesh  and 
steep  it  in  splendor.  In  a  weaker  degree  we  may  be 
molded  and  stamped  by  oiu*  habitual  thoughts  and  moods 
until  the  inner  peace  and  hope  and  cheer  transfigure  and 
shine  through  the  face. 

A  soin*,  grumbling,  morbid,  miserable  Christian  is  a 
self-contradiction.  Piety  has  no  affinity  with  pessimism. 
The  way  to  get  rid  of  such  an  evil  spirit  is  to  forget  it. 
It  can  be  banished  by  an  act  of  will  and  by  being  busy  in 
doing  good.  Work  crowds  out  worry.  Let  us  learn  to 
see  the  bright  side  of  things  and  cherish  a  cheerful  spirit. 
Much  of  this  morbid  depression  is  due  to  a  self-contained, 
selfish  life.  When  we  shut  ourselves  up  within  our  own 
hearts  we  grow  stagnant  like  a  foul  pool;  but  when  we 
send  our  life  outward  in  streams  upon  other  lives  like  a 
fountain  we  keep  pure  and  sweet.  Let  us  sink  the  roots 
and  springs  of  our  life  deep  into  God  and  live  in  his  fellow- 
ship, and  his  blessedness  will  become  our  gladness.  **Why 
art  thou  cast  down,  O  my  soul?  And  why  art  thou  dis- 
quieted within  me?  Hope  thou  in  God;  for  I  shall  yet 
praise  him.  Who  is  the  health  of  my  countenance  and  my 
God"  (Ps.  42:11). 


300       THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Christian  Scientists  make  a  point  of  ''denying"  worry 
and  being  cheerful.  Many  have  doubts  whether  they 
succeed  in  acquiring  this  grace  better  than  other  people, 
and  personal  experience  with  them  has  not  removed  these 
misgivings.  But  they  have  no  monopoly  of  this  grace  or 
special  means  of  acquiring  it,  and  the  deepest  secret  and 
source  of  peace  and  cheerfulness  is  not  in  "denying"  any 
of  the  realities  of  the  world,  but  is  faith  in  God  in  Christ. 
As  we  enter  more  fully  into  fellowship  with  him,  his  Spirit 
flows  into  us  and  fills  us  with  his  peace,  and  then  we  have 
a  rational  reason  for  and  an  unfailing  spring  of  blessedness. 
"And  let  the  peace  of  Christ  rule  in  your  hearts,  to  the 
which  also  ye  were  called  in  one  body  ;  and  be  ye  thankful" 
(Col.  3:15). 

4.  THE  PRACTICE  OF  THE  PRESENCE  OF  GOD 

There  is  a  certain  fascination  about  pantheism,  and  its 
charm  appears  to  be  due  to  the  fact  that  it  brings  God 
near  to  us.  A  distant  or  absent  God  is  fatal  to  human 
interest  in  him  and  to  real  religion  as  it  puts  him  beyond 
our  pale  and  reduces  him  to  a  cold  proposition.  But 
pantheism  brings  him  near  and  immerses  us  in  his  im- 
mediate presence  and  warm  life.  The  fatality  of  pan- 
theism, however,  is  that  it  brings  God  too  near  and  merges 
man  and  God  in  one  common  impersonal  abyss  and  fate, 
and  this  last  state  is  worse  than  the  first. 

The  truth  and  attraction  of  pantheism  are  found  in 
Christian  theism  in  their  full  force  and  value  without  any 
such  fatal  defect  or  excess.  The  Bible  brings  God  very 
near  to  us  and  yet  not  too  near.  It  declares  that  God  is 
not  far  from  any  one  of  us  but  is  nigh  us,  even  in  our  heart, 
so  that  we  do  not  need  to  ascend  into  heaven  or  descend 


OLD  TRUTHS  NEWLY  EMPHASIZED  301 

into  hell  or  fly  to  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth  to  find 
him.  Jehovah  God  created  man  in  his  own  image  and 
breathed  into  him  his  own  divine  breath.  God  is  spirit 
and  man  is  spirit,  and  thus  they  are  of  the  same  funda- 
mental nature  and  have  deep  common  faculties  and 
affinities  which  are  the  ground  of  their  fellowship  and  of 
all  religion.  The  divine  immanence  and  the  whole  system 
of  idealism  is  expressed  in  Paul's  profound  saying,  *'In 
him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  om'  being."  The 
Scriptures  are  pervaded  with  the  doctrine  of  the  divine 
immanence  which  makes  the  creation  a  visible  mani- 
festation of  his  presence. 

**God  is  here"  was  a  saying  of  Henry  Wood,  and  it  is  a 
truly  Christian  saying.  The  practice  of  the  presence  of 
God  means  that  we  cherish  and  realize  a  sense  of  his 
presence  in  all  things.  The  conception  of  nature  as  an 
enormous  mass  of  matter  and  mighty  machine  interposes 
an  opaque  obstruction  between  God  and  us,  but  the 
Hebrew  conception  of  nature  as  the  immediate  presence 
and  will  of  God  brings  him  near.  Then  the  "stormy 
wind"  is  his  **will,"  and  the  heavens  a  dome  of  many- 
colored  glass  through  which  his  glory  streams.  *'Earth's 
crammed  with  heaven,  and  every  common  bush  afire 
with  God."  From  this  point  of  view  we  see  the  world 
saturated  with  God  and  we  breathe  his  breath.  The  laws 
of  nature  are  the  laws  of  God's  own  life  which  we  share 
as  it  pours  through  us.  We  then  feel  in  nature  a  presence 
that  disturbs  us  with  a  joy  and  have  a  sense 


Of  something  far  more  deeply  interfused. 
Whose  dwelling  is  the  light  of  setting  suns. 
And  the  round  ocean  and  the  living  air 
And  the  blue  sky,  and  in  the  mind  of  man. 


302        THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Not  only  Wordsworth,  the  poet  of  nature,  but  all  the 
great  poets  and  prophets  and  mystics  have  had  this 
sense  of  the  Infinite  that  immerses  the  human  spirit  in 
God,  puts  a  *'new  splendor  on  the  grass,"  brings  heaven 
near,  and  "makes  all  the  earth  enchanted  ground." 

Providence  is  the  presence  of  the  immanent  God  in  all 
things  working  out  the  divine  plan  and  purpose.  Prayer 
makes  his  presence  more  vital  and  vivid  as  it  brings  us 
into  conscious  personal  communion  with  him  and  admits 
us  into  the  secret  place  of  the  Most  High,  where  we  are 
still  before  him  and  are  calmed  into  peace  and  receive 
suggestions  of  his  will  and  come  forth  strong  and  brave 
to  do  and  dare  in  his  service. 

This  divine  immanence  or  rnutual  indwelling  comes  to 
its  most  intimate  and  finest  expression  in  the  relation  of 
Christ  and  Christians.  Christ  gave  the  very  formula  of 
such  mutual  immanence  in  his  prayer,  "As  thou,  Father, 
art  in  me,  and  I  in  thee,  that  they  also  may  be  in  us.'* 
"Abide  in  me,  and  I  in  you."  Paul  elaborated  the  doctrine 
that  Christ  is  in  Christians,  and  Christians  in  Christ.  "It 
is  no  longer  I  that  live,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me."  More 
and  more  we  learn  to  do  all  things  as  in  his  presence  and 
for  his  sake,  so  that  whether  we  eat  or  drink,  buy  or  sell, 
pray  or  play,  we  do  all  for  the  glory  of  God.  While  not 
always  conscious  of  his  presence,  yet  we  grow  into  a  dis- 
position and  habit  of  mind  and  heart  that  enable  us  to  do 
his  will  as  by  an  act  of  conscious  obedience  and  fellow- 
ship. This  divine  immanence  is  the  truth  which  Christian 
Science  has  exploited  under  the  crude  idea  and  name  of 
the  "allness  of  God,"  but  which  is  of  the  very  substance 
and  heart  of  Christian  faith. 

In  proportion  as  we  realize  this  divine  immanence  shall 


OLD  TRUTHS  NEWLY  EMPHASIZED  303 

we  see  the  world  ablaze  with  God  and  be  able  to  live  in 
the  light  of  his  face.  We  shall  then  know  that  all  things 
are  the  expression  of  his  wisdom  and  will  and  are 
working  together  for  our  good.  Our  life  will  merge  in 
his  life  in  fellowship  and  obedience,  love  and  joy.  The 
flesh  will  melt  into  the  spirit,  and  we  shall  live  in  the 
spirit.  The  world  will  dissolve  into  the  splendor  of  God, 
and  in  his  light  we  shall  see  light.  As  Dante  expresses  it, 
we  shall  live  "where  God  immediate  rules." 

The  supremacy  of  the  spiritual,  the  gospel  of  health, 
the  duty  of  cheerfulness,  and  the  practice  of  the  presence 
of  God  are  four  principles  that  Christian  Science  has 
emphasized  and  in  a  degree  capitalized  and  popularized, 
and  in  so  doing  it  has  rendered  the  world  and  the  Christian 
Church  a  good  service,  in  spite  of  the  absurd  philosophy 
and  perverted  Scripture  which  it  has  associated  with 
them.  It  is  these  truths  and  not  its  errors  that  have 
given  the  system  its  vitality  and  growth.  The  Christian 
Church  has  not  lost  but  it  has  in  a  measure  obscured  these 
truths  so  that  they  have  not  stood  out  as  conspicuously 
and  as  helpfully  in  its  teaching  and  practice  as  they 
should.  Not  a  few  people  in  our  churches  have  more  or 
less  consciously  felt  this  lack  and  have  gone  to  where 
they  thought  they  could  find  these  satisfactions  and 
where  in  a  measure  they  have  found  them.  This  is  why 
thousands  have  left  our  Christian  churches  and  why  on 
many  an  avenue  their  costly  and  generally  well-filled 
Christian  Science  edifices  stare  us  in  the  face.  Those 
churches  must  be  meeting  some  need  which  we  have 
failed  to  satisfy.  We  should  profit  by  our  failure  and  set 
about  restoring  these  truths  to  their  full  force  and  fruit- 
fulness.     It  is  useless  for  us  to  berate  or  ridicule  or  even 


304       THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

expose  the  fallacy  and  falsity  of  Christian  Science  unless 
we  can  ourselves  do  the  work  that  it  is  doing.  There  is 
little  hope  of  winning  back  the  followers  of  this  faith  by 
mere  logic,  however  convincing  to  us  it  may  be,  but  if  we 
can  fully  meet  the  needs  that  they  are  satisfying  with 
their  poor  bread,  then  the  fallacy  and  folly  of  their  system 
will  in  time  cause  it  to  wither.  These  truths  and  satis- 
factions are  inherent  in  the  very  substance  of  Christian 
faith  where  they  are  found  in  their  rationality  and  purity 
unmixed  with  the  error  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  cult.  We  have  let 
Christian  Science  grow  at  the  expense  of  the  Christian 
Church  because  we  have  not  done  justice  to  these  truths, 
and  it  has  been  able  to  give  the  impression  that  they  are 
its  peculiar  possession  and  power.  They  have  belonged 
from  the  beginning  to  Christian  doctrine  and  living,  and 
the  church  must  show  this  and  give  them  their  rightful 
and  full  place  and  power  in  its  teaching  and  life. 


The  author's  task  is  done.  He  has  endeavored  to  tell 
the  truth  about  Christian  Science  in  a  fair  and  not  un- 
kindly spirit,  setting  down  naught  in  prejudice  and 
affirming  nothing  that  is  not  written  in  the  records  and 
backed  up  with  trustworthy  evidence.  He  would  not 
rob  anyone  of  any  genuine  comfort  that  may  be  derived 
from  this  faith,  but  the  truth  should  be  told  though  it 
may  evoke  indignant  criticism  or  give  temporary  pain. 
And  the  truth  in  time  will  prevail  and  bring  forth  the 
peaceable  fruits  of  righteousness.  He  has  laid  bare  the 
nature  of  this  system  and  uncovered  its  foundations,  and 
its  origin  and  history  and  doctrines  and  doings  do  not 
commend  it.     As  a  form  of  religion  it  is  not  worthy  of 


OLD  TRUTHS  NEWLY  EMPHASIZED  305 

acceptation,  and  we  do  not  believe  it  can  last.  We  turn 
from  it  with  relief  to  escape  from  its  unreality  and  ab- 
surdity to  Him  who  is  the  Way,  and  the  Truth,  and  the 
Life.  These  little  human  schemes  of  salvation  that  have 
swarmed  along  the  path  of  the  Christian  centuries  all 
have  their  brief  day,  but  he  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day, 
and  forever.  Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but  his 
words  shall  not  pass  away,  and  not  one  jot  or  tittle  of  his 
truth  shall  fail. 


INDEX 


Alcott,  A.  Bronson,  16. 

Arens,  Edward  J.,  46,  176. 

Asceticism,  297. 

Atonement,  Mrs.  Eddy's  doc- 
trine  of,    104,   105,   170,   171. 

Babism,  276. 

Bageley,  Miss  Sarah,  34. 

Baker,  Abigail,  mother  of  Mary, 
22. 

Baker,  Albert,  brother  of  Mary, 
24,  25,  30. 

Baker,  Mark,  father  of  Mary. 
22,  24,  27,  28,  30. 

Baker,  Mary,  see  Eddy,  Mrs. 
Mary  Baker. 

Barry,  George  W.,  41,  81. 

Benson,  Robert  Hugh,  quoted, 
91,  147. 

Berkeley,  15,  117,  150. 

Bible,  The,  see  Scripture. 

Body,  and  soul,  relations  of, 
223ff,  289ff,  298. 

Bowne,  B.  P.,  147. 

Brown,  Lucretia  L.,  45. 

Browning,  quoted,  156. 

Biichner,  Friedrich,  288. 

Buckley,  Dr.  J.  M.,  230,  quoted, 
241,  242. 

Cabot,  Dr.  Richard  C,  quoted, 
239,  241. 

Carlyle,  81. 

Carpenter,  W.  B.,  224. 

Carroll,  H.  K.,  quoted,  163, 
220,  221,  222. 

Cassiodorus,  225. 

Celsus,  Roman  medical  au- 
thority, 225. 

Chandler,  Senator,  quoted,  252. 

Channing,  W.  E.,  15. 

Cheerfulness,   duty   of,    297ff. 

Cheny,  Russell,  28. 

Chesterton,  G.  K.,  quoted,  154. 


Children,  Christian  Science  treat- 
ment of,  107.  108,  152,  155, 
205,  241,  244. 

Christ,  Jesus,  Mrs,  Eddy's  doc- 
trine of,  126,  169;  his  teaching 
as  to  miraculous  cures,  23  Iff; 
as  an  optimist,  298;  indwell- 
ing in  Christians,  302;  the 
final  Truth  and  Way,  305. 

Christianity,  relation  of  Chris- 
tian Science  to,  166ff;  270, 
271,  280. 

Church,  The  Christian  Science, 
founding  of,  174ff;  dissensions 
in,  178flf;  dissensions  in  The 
Mother  Church,  186ff;  or- 
ganization of,  188ff;  despotism 
of  the  Manual  of,  189ff, 
branch  churches,  how  or- 
ganized and  controlled,  197ff; 
worship  in,  209ff ;  membership 
of,  219ff. 

Clapp,  Mrs.  Catherine  O.,  70, 
71;  81. 

Clarke,  James  Freeman,  15. 

Coriat,  Dr.  I.  H.,  his  connection 
with  the  Emmanuel  Church 
Movement,  284. 

Corner,  Mrs.  Abbey  H.,  student 
of  Mrs.  Eddy,  180. 

Craft,  Hiram,  33. 

Craft,  Mrs.  Mary,  33. 

Crosby,  Mrs.  Sarah,  68. 

Crosse,  Mrs.  Sarah,  editor  of 
the  Christian  Science  Journal, 
180. 

Cures,  Miraculous,  have  they 
ceased?  231ff. 

Gushing,  Dr.  Alvin  M.,  59-61. 

Cutten,  George  Barton,  quoted, 
229. 

Dante,  quoted,  303. 


307 


308 


INDEX 


Darwinism,  Mrs.  Eddy's  sum- 
mary of,  141. 

Davis,  Andrew  Jackson,  18. 

Death,  Mrs.  Eddy's  doctrine  of, 
111,  125,  153,  154. 

Disease,  Mrs.  Eddy's  theory  of 
healing,  115ff,  120,  132,  234; 
true  healing  of,  232,  294. 

Dowie,  John  Alexander,  228, 
230. 

Dresser,  Horatio  W.,  quoted, 
62,  63,  74,  75,  222,  £74,  275, 
277,  279-280;  leader  of  "New 
Thought"  movement,  281ff. 

Dresser,  Julius  A.,  his  book  on 
Christian  Science,  13,  60,  61; 
his  relation  to  Quimby,  62, 
63;  73-75. 

Eastman,  Dr.  C.  J.,  29-50. 

Eddy,  Asa  Gilbert,  third  hus- 
band of  Mrs.  Eddy,  marriage 
to  Mrs.  Glover,  39;  death  of, 
48  49*  249. 

Eddy,  Dr.  E.  J.  Foster,  Mrs. 
Eddy's  adopted  son,  52,  53, 
181,  249. 

Eddy,  George  W.,  Mrs.  Eddy's 
son,  28-30,  256. 

Eddy,  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  G., 
her  books,  6-9;  authorizes 
Miss  Wilbur's  Life,  9,  10; 
relation  to  Berkeley,  15;  life 
of,  22-57;  birth  and  parentage, 
22;  childhood  experiences  and 
schooling,  21-27;  her  hys- 
terical attacks,  23,  26,  27; 
marriage  to  G.  W.  Glover, 
27,  28;  relations  with  her  son, 
28-30;  as  a  medium,  30,  31; 
marriage  to  Daniel  Patterson, 
second  husband,  31;  divorced 
from  Dr.  Patterson,  32;  visits 
Quimby,  32;  begins  practice 
of  healing,  33;  wander  years, 
32-36;  at  work  in  Lynn,  36- 
47;  writes  "Science  and 
Health,"  37;  removes  to 
Boston,   37;  glimpse  into  her 


classroom,  38;  marriage  to 
Asa  Gilbert  Eddy,  third  hus- 
band, 39;  her  obsession  as  to 
"M.  A.  M.",  42-47;  organizes 
her  church  and  Metaphysical 
College,  47;  life  and  work  in 
Boston,  47ff;  relations  with 
Calvin  A.  Frye,  50,  51;  adopts 
Dr.  E.  J.  Foster  as  her  son, 
52,  53;  leaves  Boston,  54;  re- 
tirement and  closing  years, 
54ff;  her  death,  56;  her  claims 
as  to  her  discovery  of 
Christian  Science,  58ff;  her 
visits  to  Quimby,  65ff;  her 
tributes  to  Quimby,  66,  67; 
proof  that  she  derived  her 
teaching  from  Quimby,  68ff; 
her  denial  of  such  dependence, 
72ff;  the  Quimby  manuscript 
she  used,  77ff;  employs  Rev. 
James  Henry  Wiggin  as  her 
literary  reviser,  86ff;  claims 
to  divine  inspiration,  94ff ;  her 
doctrine  of  prayer,  103,  104; 
her  "interpretation"  of  The 
Lord's  Prayer,  104;  her  doc- 
trine of  atonement  and  the 
Eucharist,  104-106;  her  doc- 
trine of  marriage,  107ff,  159ff, 
171;  her  denial  of  matter,  112, 

120,  124,  127,  149ff,  168ff; 
her  doctrine  of  spiritualism, 
llOff;  of  death.  111,  125,  153, 
154;  her  pantheism,  112,  115, 

121,  125ff,  136ff,  156ff,  166ff; 
her  theory  of  "mortal  mind,'* 
112ff,  120,  134,  150ff,  168ff; 
her  theory  and  fear  of  "animal 
magnetism,"  42,  51,  52,  112ff, 
175ff,  205;  her  theory  of 
medicine,  114flF;  of  physiology, 
1 17ff ;  of  man,  120ff ;  her  answer 
to  objections  to  Christian 
Science,  126ff ;  her  teaching  as 
to  obstetrics,  134;  her  bound- 
less credulity,  141;  identifies 
herself     with     the     "woman" 


INDEX 


309 


in  Revelation,  141,  142;  her 
teaching,  149ff;  relation  of 
her  teaching  to  Christian 
doctrines,  166ff;  her  eschatol- 
ogy,  172;  the  founding  of  her 
church,  174ff;  her  troubles  in 
her  church,  178ff;  her  quarrel 
with  Mrs.  Woodbury,  181ff; 
with  Mrs.  ^  Stetson,  183ff; 
her  dictatorial  control  of  her 
church,  193fi";  her  censorship 
of  literature,  199ff;  her  church 
service,  209ff;  her  "Fruitage" 
of  healing,  233ff;  her  merce- 
nary spirit,  245ff;  her  bogus 
"Metaphysical  College,"  248, 
249;  her  catchpenny  devices, 
252ff;  her  unwillingness  to 
suffer  pain  and  fastidious 
desire  for  comfort,  2G2;  her 
fear  of  divisions  in  her  church, 
275;  rival  sects  of  her  system, 
276ff;  elements  of  truth  in 
her  system,  287ff. 

Edwards.  Jonathan,  15, 

Emerson,  15,  16,  150. 

Emmanuel  Church  Movement, 
283ff;  296. 

Eschatology,   Mrs.   Eddy's,  172. 

Etymologies,  Mrs.  Eddy's,  25, 
90,  91,  124. 

Eucharist,  The,  Mrs.  Eddy's 
doctrine  of,   105,   106,   171. 

Evans,  Warren  F.,  18;  his  teach- 
ing and  relation  to  Quimby, 
64ff;   281. 

Faith  Cure,  Mrs.  Eddy's  denial 
of,  1 15ff ;  yet  her  own  principle, 
129,  234;  kinds  of,  227ff. 

Ferrier,  Professor  James  F., 
quoted,  150. 

Fetishism,  affinity  of  Christian 
Science  with,  133. 

Foster,  John,  297. 

Fox  sisters,  20. 

Frothingham,  O.  B.,  15. 

Frye,  Calvin  A.,  relations  with 
Mrs.  Eddy,  59-61;  87. 


Glover,  G.  W.,  Mrs.  Eddy's 
first  husband,  27,  28. 

Gnostics,  155,  165. 

God,  the  practice  of  the  presence 
of,  300ff;  the  immanence  of, 
301ff;  see  Pantheism. 

Goddard,  Dr.  Henry  H.,  on 
efficacy  of  prayer  in  disease, 
233,  241. 

Gray,  Judge  Horace,  45. 

Greenbaum,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Leon, 
their  revolt  against  Christian 
Science  despotism,  208,  209. 

Haeckel,  Ernest,  288. 

Hale,  Edward  Everett,  87. 

Harris,  Thomas  Lake,  18,  19. 

Hart,  Dean  of  University  of 
Denver,  quoted,  148. 

Healing,  Mrs.  Eddy's  theory  of, 
115ff,  120,  129ff;  faith  healing 
her  principle,  131;  mind  heal- 
ing in  general,  223ff;  kinds 
of,  227,  228;  miraculous,  has 
it  ceased?  231ff;  cases  of 
Christian  Science  healing  ex- 
amined, 233ff;  proper  means 
of,  294. 

Health,  the  gospel  of,  292ff; 
duty  of,  295ff. 

Holcombe  W.  F.,  "New 
Thought"  writer,  281. 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  16. 

Huber,  Dr.  John  B.,  241. 

Hugo,  Victor,  quoted,  299. 

Human  Life,  journal,  9. 

Hume,  David,  149. 

Hutchinson,  Dr.  Woods,  226. 

Hutton,  R.  H.,  224. 

Hygiene,  Mrs.  Eddy's  rejection 
of,  118,  129. 

Hymns,  Christian  Science,  21  Iff; 
Parody  on  "Rock  of  Ages," 
213. 

Idealism,  philosophical,  ex- 
plained, 14;  Mrs.  Eddy's  mis- 
understanding of,  122,  149- 
151,   266ff;   true,   291,   292. 

Immanence,  The  divine,  300ff. 


310 


INDEX 


James,  William,  on  the  eflBcacy 
of  prayer,  284. 

Joy,  the  Bible  a  book  of,  298. 

Kennedy,  Richard,  meets  Mrs. 
Eddy,  36,  becomes  her  part- 
ner, 36,  37:  falls  under  her 
condemnation,  43,  44;  testi- 
mony as  to  Mrs.  Eddy's 
pantheism,  158,  159;  175, 
176;  195. 

Kuhns,  Oscar,  quoted,  292. 

Ladd,  Professor  G.  T.,  quoted, 
173. 

Lea,  Charles  Herman,  his  book 
on  Christian  Science,  12. 

Longfellow,  16. 

Lotze,  Hermann,  149. 

McClure's  Magazine,  8,  9. 

McComb,  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel, 
his  connection  with  the  Em- 
manuel Church  Movement, 
283,  284. 

Magnetism,  Animal,  19,  27; 
"M.  A.  M."  42ff;  in  Boston, 
51,  52;  Mrs.  Eddy's  doctrine 
of,  112ff;  175ff;  205. 

Man,  Mrs.  Eddy's  doctrine  of, 
112,    120,    121,    158,    169. 

Manichaeans,  155. 

Marriage,  Mrs.  Eddy's  doctrine 
of,    107ff,    159ff,    171. 

Mars,  Gerhardt  C,  his  book 
on  Christian  Science,  11; 
quoted,  147. 

Marshall,  H.  R.,  224. 

Marsten,  Francis  E.,  quoted, 
162,  165,  166. 

Materialism,  Mrs.  Eddy  mired 
in,   146;  practical,  288ff. 

Matter,  Mrs.  Eddy's  theory  of, 
112,  120,  124,  127,  149ff, 
168ff. 

Medicine,  Christian  Science 
theory  of,  114ff;  use  of  Scrip- 
tural, 232;  natural  and  nec- 
essary, 294. 
Mesmerism.  19,  113,  175,  176, 
179.     See  Magnetism. 


Metaphysics,  Mrs.  Eddy's,  114fl. 

Milmine,  Georgine,  her  Life  of 
Mrs.  Eddy,  8,  9;  quoted  20, 
24,  26,  27,  34,  45,  50,  52,  5Q, 
77,  81,  85,  86,  89,  90,  93,  159, 
176,  177,  178,  185,  186,  199, 
237,  255,  256. 

Mind,  "Mortal,"  Mrs.  Eddy's 
doctrine  of,  112,  120,  124, 
150ff,  168ff, 

Mitchell,  Dr.  Weir,  226. 

Moll,  Dr.  Albert,  quoted,  224; 
241. 

Mormonism,  affinity  with  Chris- 
tian Science,  19. 

Moulton,  Dr.  T.  G.,  quoted,  212. 

Newhall,  Mrs.  Armenius,  33. 

Newhall,  Miss  Elizabeth,  81. 

Newman,  John  Henry,  212. 

"New  Thought,"  281ff. 

Nicolaitans,  156,  166. 

Nixon,  W.  G.,  53,  54. 

Noyes,  Dr.  Rufus  K.,  48,  49. 

Osier,  Sir  William,  quoted,  230. 

Paget,  Stephen,  his  book  on 
Christian  Science,  12;  quoted, 
147,  237;  his  examination  of 
Christian  Science  cures,  240ff . 

Pain,  Mrs.  Eddy's  theory  of, 
112,  152;  use  of,  293,  294. 

Pantheism,  Mrs.  Eddy's,  112, 
115,  121,  125ff,  136ff,  139, 
156ff,   166ff,   172,  272,  300. 

Parker,  Theodore,  15. 

Patterson,  C.  B.,  "New 
Thought"    writer,    281. 

Patterson,  Dr.  Daniel,  Mrs. 
Eddy's  second  husband,  31, 
32. 

Patton,  Francis  L.,  his  judg- 
ment of  Mark  Twain's  "Chris- 
tian Science,"  12,  13. 

Paulsen,  Friedrich,  149. 

Peabody,  Frederick  W.,  his 
book  on  Christian  Science, 
12;  46;  quoted,  48,  49;  on 
relations  of  Mrs.  Eddy  and 
Calvin    A.    Frye,   51;   77,    98; 


INDEX 


311 


quoted,  161,  163,  182,  183, 
237,  248,  249,  251,  252,  254. 

Physiology,  Mrs.  Eddy's  theory 
of,  117ff. 

Plato,  149. 

Pleasure,  Mrs.  Eddy's  theory  of, 
112.  152,  153;  hedonistic  pur- 
suit of,  265,  288.  ^ 

Podmore,  Frank,  his  book  on 
Christian  Science,  13;  quoted, 
264. 

Polk,  Dean  W.  M.,  quoted,  147. 

Powell,  Lyman  P.,  his  book  on 
Christian  Science,  9;  quoted, 
15,  46;  77,  83,  91,  92,  163,  164. 

Poyen,  Charles,  mesmerist,  19, 
20,  27,  61,  78. 

Prayer,  Mrs.  Eddy's  doctrine 
of,  103,  104;  her  "inter- 
pretation" of  The  Lord's 
Prayer,  104;  her  doctrine  of 
prayer  pantheistic,  157,  158, 
170,  204,  205,  213;  Mrs. 
Eddy's  travesty  of  The  Lord's 
Prayer,  214;  efficacy  of  prayer 
in  curing  disease,  233,  284, 
295ff,  302. 

Principle,  Mrs.  Eddy's  use  of, 
see  Pantheism. 

Providence,  302. 

Purrington,  William  A.,  quoted, 
241. 

Quimby,  George  A.,  son  of 
P.  P.,  74. 

Quimby,  Phineas  Parkhurst, 
reader  of  the  Bible  and 
Berkeley,  15;  interested  in 
mesmerism,  20;  his  life  and 
teaching,  61ff;  relations  with 
Mrs.  Eddy,  65fF;  his  death, 
68;  his  manuscript  used  by 
Mrs.  Eddy,  77ff. 

Rawson,  F.  L.,  quoted,  276. 

Riley,  Professor  Woodbridge, 
on  the  geographical  distri- 
bution of  Christian  Science, 
260-262;  quoted,  267ff. 

Royce,  Josiah,   149. 


Rydberg,    Viktor,    quoted,    43, 

144. 
Sanborn,  Dyer  H.,  24,  25. 

Sanborn,  Mahala,  28. 

Schofield,  Dr.  A.  T.,  226;  quoted, 
227,  228,  230. 

"Science  and  Health,"  making 
of  the  book,  77ff;  editions  of, 
80ff;  Mark  Twain's  critical 
examination  of,  84flF;  who 
wrote  the  book?  84ff;  claims 
as  to  its  divine  inspiration, 
94ff;  contents  of  the  book, 
102ff;  its  lack  of  order  and 
its  endless  reiteration,  102ff; 
claim  that  reading  it  will  cure, 
132,  133,  229,  236;  opinions 
of  the  book,  147ff;  repetitions 
in,  149;  its  use  in  Christian 
Science  church  service,  216ff; 
profit  on  the  book,  249fF;  a 
purpose  it  may  have  fulfilled, 
274. 

Science,  Christian,  truth  and 
error  in,  4-6;  literature  of, 
6-13;  the  subsoil  of,  14-21; 
a  spurious  form  of  idealism, 
15,  122,  149ff,  266ff;  affinity 
with  Shakerism,  17,  18;  with 
Mormonism,  19;  Mrs.  Eddy's 
claims  as  to  its  discovery, 
58ff;  her  statement  of  its 
fundamental  propositions, 
114ff;  its  pantheism,  125 
136fl',  156ff,  166ff ;  Mrs.  Eddy's 
answer  to  objections  to,  126ff, 
its  cruelty  to  the  sick  and 
suffering,  130ff,  243ff;  affinity 
with  fetishism  and  devil  wor- 
ship, 133;  its  teaching,  149ff; 
its  perversion  of  Christian 
doctrines,  166ff;  the  incon- 
gruity of  its  name,  173;  its 
church  service,  209ff ;  its  cures, 
233ff;  its  mercenary  spirit, 
245ff;  its  appeal  of  health, 
259ff ;  ^  of  comfort  _  262ff ;  its 
hedonism,    264ff;    its    appeal 


312 


INDEX 


of  idealism,  26Cff ;  its  appeal  of 
liberal  revolt,  270ff;  its  re- 
ligious appeal,  270ff ;  the 
future  of,  273ff;  divisions  and 
rival  sects  in,  275ff;  growing 
opposition  to,  278ff;  its  war 
against  Scripture,  science  and 
common  sense,  280;  elements 
of  truth  in,  287ff. 

Scripture,  Mrs.  Eddy's  use  of, 
106,  107,  124,  137ff,  171ff. 
216ff. 

Senses,  The,  Christian  Science 
view  of,  145,  146,  155,  172. 

Shakerism,  affinity  of  Christian 
Science  with,  17,  18. 

Sin,  Mrs.  Eddy's  doctrine  of, 
104,  134,  153,  155ff,  158,  169ff. 

Smith,  Rev.  Charles  M.,  54. 

Smith,  Joseph,  founder  of  Mor- 
monism,  19. 

Soul,  and  body,  relations  of, 
223ff,  239ff,  298. 

Spirit,  Holy,  Mrs.  Eddy's  doc- 
trine  of,    107,    126,    169. 

Spiritualism,  20;  Mrs.  Eddy's 
belief  in  and  practice  of,  30, 
31;  her  doctrine  of,  110,  111. 

Spofford,  Daniel  H.,  student  of 
Mrs.  Eddy,  38,  39;condemned 
by  Mrs.  Eddy,  44,  45,  46; 
114,  175,  176,  195. 

Stanley,  Charles,  student  of 
Mrs.  Eddy,  158,  159. 

Stetson,  Mrs.  Augusta  E.,  154; 
her  rival  church  in  New  York 
and  expulsion  from  TheMother 
Church,  183ff;  191,  192,  195; 
quoted,  208;  her  own  system 
of  healing,  275. 

Sturge,  Miss  M.  Carta,  quoted, 
148. 

Suggestion,  Hypnotic,  227. 

Surgery,  Christian  Scientists  not 
to  attempt  it,  131. 

Testament,  Expositor's  Greek, 
quoted,  232. 


Tilton,  Mrs.  Abby,  sister  of 
Mrs.  Eddy,  35,  36. 

Toplady,  Augustus,  212. 

Townsend,  Luther  T.,  his  chal- 
lenge to  Mrs.  Eddy,  238,  239. 

Transcendentalism,  in  New  Eng- 
land, 15-17. 

Trine,  Ralph  Waldo,  "New 
Thought"  writer,  281. 

Truth  in  Christian  Science, 
259ff,  287ff;  summary  of,  303. 

Tuke,  Dr.  D.  H.,  226. 

Twain,  Mark,  his  book  on 
Christian  Science,  12;  his 
critical  examination  of 
"Science  and  Health",  84ff; 
on  Mrs.  Eddy's  use  of  the 
name  "Mother  Mary,"  lOOff; 
his  characterization  of  the 
Manual  of  The  Mother 
Church,  190,  191,  192,  193; 
on  Mrs.  Eddy's  profits,  249, 
250;  on  the  future  of  Christian 
Science,  273ff. 

Unitarianism,  15. 

Voltaire,  quoted,  172. 

Walcott,  Mrs.  Julia,  33. 

Warfield,  Dr.  B.  B.,  230,  231; 
on  counterfeit  miracles,   233. 

Watts,  Isaac,  212. 

Weaver,  E.  E.,  on  the  Emmanuel 
Church  Movement,  286. 

Webster,  Captain,  33. 

Wentworth,  Charles  O.,  70. 

Wentworth,  Horace,  34;  his 
affidavit  as  to  Mrs.  Eddy, 
69-70. 

Wentworth  Mrs.  Sally,  34,  69, 
81. 

Wesley,  Charles,  212. 

Wheeler,  Mrs.  James,  33. 

White,  Andrew  D.,  quoted,  46. 

Whittier,  212. 

Wiggin,  Rev.  James  Henry,  his 
testimony  as  to  Mrs.  Eddy's 
dependence  on  Quimby,  75, 
76;   Mrs.   Eddy's  literary  re- 


INDEX 


313 


viser,  86ff;  dismissed  by  Mrs. 

Eddy,  92,  93;  his  opinion  of 

Christian  Science,  93,  94. 
Wilbur.  Sybil,  her  Life  of  Mrs. 

Eddy,  9-11;  quoted,  47. 
Wilby,  Thomas  W.,  his  book  on 

Christian  Science,  12;  quoted, 

263. 
Wood,  Henry,  "New  Thought" 

writer,  281;  quoted,  294,  301. 
Woodbury,  Mrs.  Josephine,  C, 


quoted,  165,  177;  her  separa- 
tion from  Mrs.  Eddy,  ISlff; 
195,  199. 

Woolcott,  Rev.  P.  C,  quoted, 
148. 

Worcester,  Rev.  Dr.  Elwood, 
his  account  of  the  Emmanuel 
Church  Movement,  283ff,  296. 

Wordsworth,  quoted,  301. 

Worship,  Christian  Science, 
209ff. 


DATE  DUE 


::ayi  r^ 


GAYLORD 


'RINTED  IN  U.S./ 


